


Apocalyptic

by genovianprince



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Abusive Curtis (Voltron), Abusive Relationships, Angels, Apocalypse, Demons, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Good Lotor (Voltron), Lotor Is Good Actually, Multi, Torture, Trans Lance (Voltron), Trans Male Lance (Voltron), abuse involving food, background sheithunk, bastardization of christian lore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:15:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 5
Words: 21,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22037656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/genovianprince/pseuds/genovianprince
Summary: Lance Esparza is an Olympic gymnast who lives with his abusive boyfriend, Curtis Andros, who’s home is crashed by the four demons of the Apocalypse - Shiro, Keith, Hunk, and Adam. Some research gave them one of the places on Earth that they can hide in that is also a hotbed for magical activity - ley lines, crossroads, etc. A little magic later, and the horses are disguised as temperamental motorcycles.Of course, they didn’t expect the house to be occupied when they showed up (outdated information online showed the house was for sale and completely unoccupied!), but, uh, hi there, human Lance, nice to meet you?With Lance’s help, they figure out what to do to make the apocalypse go more smoothly and in a vastly different direction from what Zarkon, king of Hell, wants, because the demons don’t actually want to destroy everything. They also end up evicting Curtis from Lance’s home and life.During this whirlwind, Lance finds himself falling for Adam, but he’s dating Lotor, son of Zarkon, so that’s, hm. Well. At least they’re polyamorous. Even if the world will end soon. Bright sides? Silver linings? That’s Lance!
Relationships: Adam/Lance (Voltron), Adam/Lance/Lotor (Voltron), Adam/Lotor (Voltron), Curtis/Lance (Voltron), Lance/Lotor (Voltron)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 44
Collections: VLD Angst Bang 2019





	1. Chapter 1

Lance sighed as his Khajiit got beheaded, _again,_ by the hulking draugr he was fighting.  
  
“I should have never made my sneak legendary,” he grumbled to himself as he turned off the Switch and switched to the local weather channel on his TV. He loved playing Skyrim, but _man,_ he couldn’t focus for some reason today. It was like there was something in the air that was buzzing around his head. Like a… what were they called again? Wrackspurts? He huffed at himself. It didn’t really matter, the point was he couldn’t get anything done today, not even things he _liked_ doing.  
  
...Shit, had he taken his Adderall today? At that thought, the panic forced him to his feet and into the kitchen to check his weekly-med-container-thingie. He’d taken today’s, apparently, as long as today was Wednesday. He checked his phone. Yup. Wednesday. Ugh, nothing interesting ever happened on Wednesdays.  
  
Well, at least he’d finally gotten up. Now that he was in here, he might as well finally take care of the trash. Tying up the bag, he threw it over his shoulder like a demented Santa Claus and shuffled back into the living room, ignoring the sudden sense of dread, and instead despairing over having to come back in and put a new trash bag in.  
  
At least up until his front door was opened, with him still halfway between the kitchen and the door. He froze, one foot still in the air, mouth agape, as four… cosplayers? shuffled into his house.  
  
 _What the fuck._  
  
Oh, he’d said that aloud. Now they were looking at him in confusion and horror. Shit shit shit.  
  
“If you’re here to kill me, could you at least let me finish taking out the trash first?”  
  
The cosplayers and would-be-murders all glanced at each other, until the brown-haired one with glasses and a set of broken horns shrugged and stepped forward.  
  
“Sorry, we didn’t expect anybody to be here,” he apologized, “We’re not here to kill or rob anyone.”  
  
“....Um… Then are you a realtor or something?” Lance asked, brow scrunching in confusion, “Because, I mean, y’all are working on really outdated information. I bought this place about six months ago.”  
  
“Uh…” The guy with a headband and some kind of windy, ram-like horns rubbed the back of his neck. “Why don’t I, uh, take that trash bag from you? And then we can explain what’s going on?”  
  
Okay, Lance was supremely, awfully confused, but he shrugged and handed the bag over. It didn’t seem like he was in any immediate danger, at least.  
  
He jumped back with a screech as the guy just made the bag fucking _vanish._ “What the hell?!” he yelled, staring at the guy’s empty hands. A second later, he pinched himself and hissed in pain.  
  
“Okay, I’m not dreaming, so what the fuck, why are there four cosplaying magician weirdos in my fucking house?” he demanded.  
  
The taller black-haired guy with a white stripe, decorative deer antlers, and what looked to be deer ears instead of human, snickered. “Sorry, sorry, I think that is, uh… the most creative description for our kind I’ve ever heard?”  
  
Lance gave him an unimpressed look.  
  
“I’m Adam,” Mr. Glasses spoke up again, “This is Shiro, Hunk, and Keith. We, uh… You may want to sit down for this.”  
  
Lance remained silent, raising his eyebrows.  
  
“We’re demons,” Keith said bluntly, rolling his eyes, “We’re here to cause the apocalypse.”  
  
“...So you _are_ going to kill me, then. Uh, thanks for taking care of the trash for me, I guess? I, uh, never thought I’d die this young, so I haven’t written a will or anything, but then again, I guess that doesn’t matter, since the planet’s gonna be coated in lava or whatever—”  
  
“We’re not going to kill you,” Shiro piped up, “I mean, I guess, not me, since I’m not the one being Death. I’m actually Famine, because I love black, and I wanted to have the black horse. Keith is War and Hunk is Pollution.”  
  
Hunk sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “This sounds like an intro to a bad comedy,” he muttered, making Lance laugh.  
  
“It does. But, I mean…. It’s pretty believable. I mean, I just saw you make my trash vanish. But like, if you’re not killing me right now, then why are you even here? Shouldn’t you be off riding your horses and causing havoc?”  
  
“We don’t _want_ to cause the apocalypse,” Keith said, “But we have to have a plan.”  
  
“Your house was built on a very ancient crossroads,” Shiro said helpfully, “So it’s where we were drawn to.”  
  
Lance shook his head, muttered a curse in Spanish, and sat down on his couch, burying his face in his hands. Adam came by and sat gingerly next to him.  
  
“We really didn’t expect to run into anyone,” he said apologetically, “I know this must be a lot to take in.”  
  
“Yeah, no shit.” Lance snorted, looking over at Adam with a weak smile. “But… It is pretty cool. Not every day you meet a demon. Also, really good to know I’m not dead and going to Hell, actually. This, uh… paperwork mixup is definitely easier to process.”  
  
Adam snorted, smiling slightly. “I’d imagine so.”  
  
“Okay. Okay. Breathe, Lance,” he muttered to himself, leaning back against the couch. “So. Hey, wait a minute, why is it Pollution and not Pestilence?”  
  
“Pestilence as a concept got scrapped after the vaccine was invented,” Hunk said. “It’s why I have…” He paused dramatically. “Trash powers.”  
  
Lance shrieked with laughter as the rest of them groaned as if in utter agony.  
  
“Alright, that’s fair enough,” he said as he finally got himself under control. “Anyway, um. Soooo… Is there some kind of like, official prophecy you have to follow? I mean, I know plenty of people interpret what’s written in the Bible as some kind of like, seal-breaking prophecy leading to the Rapture and all that, but did you guys get specific guidelines or anything?”  
  
“...Is anybody else freaked out by how nonchalantly he’s taking this?” Hunk asked.  
  
“Uh, _he_ is here in the room and _he_ can hear you,” Lance said, annoyed. “Honestly, I think my brain just decided to shut down and have the freakout later.”  
  
“Fair enough,” Hunk conceded, “But no, there’s nothing official. Just, y’know, the boss telling us that the Big Boss said it was time, he’s picking us to go do the thing, and… Just go wreak havoc.”  
  
Lance nodded. “So… no instructions. You got any ideas on what to do?”  
  
Adam sighed. “Not really. We all like humans. We don’t _want_ to do this”  
  
“We had to pick our own horses,” Keith added, “I’m pretty sure none of us know what the hell we’re doing.”  
  
“Fair enough… I mean, hey, uh. Mr Death? Why not start with, like, Trump or something?”  
  
“...You can just call me Adam,” he said dryly.  
  
Lance shrugged. “Okay. If you’re sure? I mean, there’s myths and stuff about true names, and I don’t want to, like, accidentally do something bad.”  
  
Keith snorted. “One, Adam isn’t even his _true name,_ two, no one’s ever made me do anything by just snapping, ’Keith’ at me, and three, those myths are fucking stupid and wrong.”  
  
“Hey.” Shiro put his hand on Keith’s shoulder, giving him the sparkly-eyed, I Know That You’re Better Than This And Now I Am Concerned face. “He doesn’t know what he’s dealing with—really, neither do we—and he’s being really hospitable to the four random demons who randomly turned up in his life. You don’t have to be so harsh with him, Baby.” 

Keith blushed, looking away slightly. “Sorry,” he managed to make himself say.  
  
“No harm done,” Lance said, shrugging again, “Just, you know, that true name thing definitely always feels true when your mom screams your full name at you. And I have a long name! That means it’s a lot of effort.” He laughed.  
  
“Must be nice, knowing what it sounds like when your mom—”  
  
“Baby, no.”  
  
“I’d imagine it’s similar to your boyfriend there screaming your name at you when you’re not having sex.” Lance snickered. **  
****  
**“Shiro doesn’t scream at me unless we’re having sex.”

“Lucky you, then.”  
  
Keith’s face went sour immediately. “Your boyfriend screams at you for non-sexy reasons?”

Lance shrugged. “Sometimes. I mean, usually it happens because I’ve forgotten to take my meds and I’m annoying him, which I get, I annoy myself when I’m not on my meds, so it’s not the biggest deal in the world. Doesn’t stop it from being, like.... disheartening, though. I mean, yeah, it sucks, but also, like, I definitely do things to deserve it, so.” He shrugged again.

Keith’s face went carefully blank, but his tail suddenly lashed in anger. Shiro gaped. Hunk paled. Adam’s mouth opened as he leaned forward, concern furrowing his brow.  
  
 _“Despacito!”_  
  
Lance flinched slightly as his phone went off and he fumbled for it, standing up and moving away so the demons wouldn’t be in the shot.

Answering it on vidchat, he said, “Hey, sweetheart. How are you?”

Curtis smiled at the screen. “Fine, darling. How’re things at the house? Not eating too much takeout again, are you? Or too much of that food your mother loves to feed you so much?”

Lance let out a strained laugh. “No, no, I haven’t been eating like that. Plenty of salad, lots of fruits. Maybe a few baked potatoes.”

“Well, that’s not too bad, I suppose.” Curtis squinted at Lance, noticing Lance’s darting eyes and shifty demeanor. “Lance. you’re hiding something from me.”

“N-no, not at all, I just—” He sighed defeatedly when Curtis continued to squint at him. “I... found a kitten hiding in the wheel well of my - of _the_ car. She’s hiding somewhere right now, but I took her in because she was so bedraggled and looked so awful, Curtis, she needed help.”

Curtis let out a long-suffering sigh. “You _know_ we can’t have pets. We’ve discussed this.”

“No, I know, I promise. I’m just making sure she’s okay and then taking her to the shelter. I wouldn’t just adopt an animal. Especially when you have told me over and over you don’t like them. It’d be unfair.”  
  
“Good boy.”

“So how’s work?” Lance gave him a tiny smile. 

Curtis’ expression closed off. “Part of the contract is I can’t discuss anything. Not even to you. How many times do I have to tell you, you can’t ask for details —”

“But I wasn’t asking for details! Just.... is it going positively? Surely you can say that much.”

“It’s.... _going_. I need to get back, we were just on a break, but I wanted to check in with you. Make sure you were following the rules. You’ll need to get that cat out of there as soon as she’s healthy enough to be moved and deep clean the house, I won’t have any leftover dander or hair around. Understood?”

“Yeah, sweetheart. I promise. I hope your work gets better, honey, I’m behind you all the way. You’re gonna change the world.”

Curtis allowed himself a small smile. “Thank you, darling. Goodbye.”

Lance wilted as Curtis hung up. “....Bye... I love you…” He sighed, putting his phone in his pocket and standing. “Okay, gotta call the cleaning company now... Uh. Did you guys need any tea or anything? I mean, surely causing the apocalypse is gonna work up some thirst. And an appetite. Unless you guys don’t really _need_ those kinds of things. Or you feed on human souls…”

His face brightened. “Wait, if you’re causing the apocalypse, I _don’t_ have to call the cleaning company! I’ll just be dead soon anyway, right? Boys, please, don’t fight over who gets to eat my soul, you’re all gorgeous, and I couldn’t _possibly_ pick between you all.”

Hunk blinked. “...You know what, this feels weird.”  
  
Shiro furrowed his brow gave Lance a concerned, yet confused look. “I’m? No? But, like? I mean, first of all, we don’t eat souls? Why would we do that, like? Literally why? Who _told you that_ , it doesn’t even make any sense, like??” He sighed, tugging on his long bangs to ground himself. “But also: what in the Nine Circles of Hell was _that_ ? With the phone call and the cleaning company and _what_ ?”  
  
“Uh, do you guys... not pay attention to Earth? At all? Because there’s _loooots_ of movies and stuff where you guys literally eat souls, so.” Lance sighed and sat back down, shifting away from Adam and Shiro. “Curtis doesn’t like animals. He’s allergic to cats, anyway. So, when I told the lie about the cat, he got upset with me. And he’ll _know_ if I didn’t get our cleaning company to come down and deep clean the house, so in order to perpetuate the lie, I’ve gotta pay them to come in. But that’s a hell of a lot better than saying ’the apocalypse is coming and the four Horsemen are in our house’. He’ll… think I’m cheating or something.”

Smiling weakly, he continued, “Unless you guys start it _before_ I have to do that, which would be great, because I don’t want him to come home and get mad with me.”

“……No? We pay attention, or at least I do, but…… We _have_ souls. And come _on_ , there’s more than enough stuff out there about the _power_ of souls. You don’t just put them on a cracker and??” Shiro spluttered incoherently and gesticulated wildly.

Keith sighed fondly. “Translation: Shiro takes exception to how that call with your alleged boyfriend went, so he’s hyper-fixating on something that’s easier to make sense of than that fuck-truck treating you the way he did.”

Lance couldn’t help but laugh a little at Shiro, but then Keith’s words pierced through him. He flipped between sad and mad for a few moments, trying to decide how he wanted to react to that, and eventually just sighed. “C’mon, man, don’t call him that.”  
  
Adam went to lay a hand on Lance’s shoulder, pulling back quickly at the slight flinch his movement elicited. Gently, he said, “No, Keith is right. That’s not.....he talked to you like you’re a _child_ , not an adult he respects as an equal partner in a relationship, and what the fuck is that.”

“If I see him treat you like an actual person and not in the way the Geryon treats his underlings, down in the Seventh Circle? Then I’ll retract my statement. But until that never happens, your boyfriend’s a douchebag and you deserve better.” Keith huffed. 

Lance scoffed. “You guys are all demons here to cause the apocalypse. Why should I believe you? Besides, I need that kind of thing in my life. _I’m childish_ . I’m too loud and brash and annoying, I like to eat pizza and macaroni which goes against the diet I need to keep myself in shape so I can try out for the Olympics again next time, I don’t share everything — I’m lucky he didn’t call me out on saying ’my’ car instead of ’the’ car at first, earlier. Everything should be about _us_ , not just me, and I’m _selfish_ , okay? If he’s happy, I can be happy. And I sure as _fuck_ didn’t ask for any fuckin’ _demons_ to show up in my house and start questioning my relationship.” He glared at them all, then pulled his legs up and hugged them to his chest, burying his face in his knees and breathing deeply.  
  
“Sorry,” he finally muttered into the shocked silence, “I… I shouldn’t get so angry.” He swallowed. “And shout like that, that’s… unfair. Um…” He sighed. “So, did you guys… like… have any jobs before becoming Death and stuff? Did someone take them over or anything?”  
  
Adam hesitated to go with the subject change, but clearly going back to the other would just further close Lance off, so he hummed in thought.  
  
“I don’t know about the others?” he offered, “But as for me, I… I suppose you could say I’m the adversary of humanity.”  
  
Lance’s eyes bugged out of his head. “ _Lucifer?_ Is that why you chose the name Adam?”  
  
Keith threw his head back and laughed as Adam’s face went from concerned and somewhat light to offended and indignant in a second.  
  
“I am _not_ that awful, pathetic excuse for an existence,” he huffed, crossing his arms, “Absolutely not. I am the former angel known as Samael.”  
  
Lance nodded politely, still mostly confused.  
  
Adam sighed. “Look. You know the story of Job, right? A pious man who worshipped Adonai, but who had things pretty easy? And then Satan steps in and ruins his life on a bet, to see if he’ll keep his faith? Yeah, that’s what I do. When I’m not being drafted for the apocalypse, that is. My job is to… press and prod, and _test_ , so that you humans can show how true your faith is. Or how false, and fleeting, in more cases than I like. It’s an official, heaven-ordained job, that is not specific to Satan.”

“Ohhh. Okay, that makes sense,” Lance said, relieved, “So… That’s pretty cool.” He opened his mouth and shut it again, thinking that perhaps asking why someone Fell was personal and akin to someone asking Lance what he had in his pants. His adjacent question to that — why would Heaven actually assign/let the Fallen/demons keep their jobs — would probably be similar.  
  
“Would you be allowed to tell me if you’ve tested me before? Did I pass?” he chose to ask instead, reflecting on all the times he definitely said “the Lord is testing me” and wondering if Adam was behind it. _What kind of shit did Adam even_ **_see?_ ** “Oh, wait, unless, like. You only test Jewish people, maybe? Which would make sense. Sorry, I’m Catholic. I mean, I don’t think the concept is like, for Jewish people alone, obviously we have the concept too, but like, not a specific demon-man in a toga running around and making all the streetlights red as we pull up on our way late to work. I mean, not that I’m uber Catholic, or anything anyway, so I could be wrong? I just kinda go with it specifically because that’s my family’s thing. Not that I don’t believe in most of it, but some of the Catholic practices make me mad, so I tend to go with ’vaguely Catholic’, I mean. I mean, uh. Praise Jesus?”

Keith and Hunk stood up simultaneously to go rummage in the kitchen. After a few moments, the microwave lit up and the sound of popcorn popping reached the living area.

Shiro smiled apologetically. “…I’m sorry for them. They, uh… It’s exactly what it looks like.”

Adam reached out and gently tapped Lance’s nose, as a very playful “stop talking now” gesture. “If I had, I couldn’t tell you. But I will say, there’s a reason the Bible keeps the story of Job, and why the temptation of Jesus in the desert features prominently. Take from that what you will. And you can relax. You don’t need to prove anything to me right now.”

“Yes, he does!” Keith called out from the kitchen.

“…Again: I’m sorry for Hunk and Keith. They… enjoy watching Adam work. And drama.”

Hunk’s head poked out of the kitchen. “Hey, c’mon, this is nice. It’s better than what we’re gonna be doing. Do you want some while we’re making it, though? The popcorn, that is.”

Shiro shook his head. “Even if I were hungry, I’d be abstaining because I really, really don’t like the idea of putting Adam on the spot like this, and making him interrogate someone who’s being really very kind and hospitable. It’s disrespectful, it’s rude, I don’t like it.”

Lance smiled softly at Adam, blushing. “I...Thanks. Sorry, I have a tendency to ramble. Like, a lot.” He took in a breath and then clacked his mouth shut, smiling sheepishly. _Oh, the Lord himself is definitely testing me right now. I’ve got the biggest crush on this guy. A freakin’ demon. Help._

“Aww, aren’t you guys just adorable,” Hunk cooed, before he ducked back into the kitchen to playfully fight Keith for the right to get the popcorn out of the microwave. “And hey, popcorn is good for whatever. Neither of us said anything about interrogation!”  
  
Shiro sighed, shaking his head.  
  
“Ah, don’t worry about it.” Lance shrugged. “I don’t mind the teasing. But uh, yeah, so… apocalypse… that’s a big-ticket event, huh? I mean… Do you guys really have no idea what you’re going to do? Can’t you find any way to stop it? Is… Satan too powerful or something?”  
  
Adam inhaled slowly. “Satan mostly concerns himself with playing the story out correctly. What he thinks is correct, what Adonai expects him to do. He’s often argued that if Adonai has this Great Plan, that nobody has ever had any free will, because it’s all predetermined. So if we _did_ thwart it, somehow, Satan would likely chalk it up to some… interesting plot twist in Adonai’s Great Plan. It would amuse him, even if it delays the war he’s anticipating.”  
  
“Because the Great Plan is technically unknowable, right?” Lance asked, “I mean, only God knows the whole story, and what _we_ expect to happen isn’t what God expects? And God gets Their way, of course.”  
  
“Exactly. If we can’t act outside the Great Plan because everything we do has already been known by Adonai and planned for, then whatever happens is the result of that at work.”  
  
“So… Now we have to figure out _how_ to do this,” Lanec mused, “Because really, if Satan isn’t even going to object—”  
  
“There’s powerful demons of Hell who _would_ object, though,” Shiro interrupted, “And it would be hard to convince them to put their blood-thirstiness down.”  
  
“Well… Why not pretend everything is going according to plan while you’re doing things differently? I mean…” Lance snickered. “You could always… hahaha, I mean, you could always pull a Crowley.”  
  
Shiro blinked. “Do you mean the demon-king-of-hell from Supernatural?”  
  
Lance rolled his eyes. “No, from Good Omens. It was originally a book, but then it got made into a TV series recently. Six parts, each an hour long. Which is good for my ADHD ass, because I can’t focus on a book for the life of me.”  
  
Keith came back into the living room, eyes wide as he carried the bowl of popcorn he’d successfully wrestled from Hunk. “Good Omens is a show now? I read the book when it first came out. It was so… good. It deserves better words than just ‘good’.” He sat down and started munching, setting the bowl on the table for anyone to have a grab it.  
  
Lance nodded. “It’s really brilliant. Now I don’t think we can do what they did exactly… I mean, for one thing, none of you guys have mentioned an Antichrist, so.”  
  
Adam snorted. “No such thing, sorry.”  
  
“Oh, well. There you go, then.” Lance sighed. “Okay, so… You guys actually want to not burn the Earth or some shit, right?”  
  
“No way,” Hunk chimed in, “I don’t want to do that. None of us do. If you’ve got any ideas, share with the class, because the Earth is nice and I don’t want some war that will kill everyone and destroy the planet.”  
  
Lance chuckled. “Well, that’s good. I don’t have any ideas right now, but we could totally brainstorm… After I make that phone call to the cleaning company. Ugh. I wish they did requests through their website. If you’re not going to kill me and burn my house down, I need to be sure that _Curtis_ doesn’t when he gets home.”  
  
Adam frowned, but he nodded, letting Lance go without comment. The demons shared an uneasy look as Lance trotted out of the living room to make the call. They all wanted to help, but… knowing how to do that was going to be a tough call.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The art in this chapter is by the lovely griffonskies. This is just three of the pieces she did, another is in the next chapter!

The next day, after Lance had spent time figuring out how to accommodate everyone in a two bedroom house (one of which being Lance and Curtis’ bedroom) and everyone had gotten some sleep, the brainstorming session began, peppered with Lance’s questions about demon behavior and general existence.  
  
“So where _are_ the horses, anyway?” Lance asked as he munched on a bowl of grapes, watching the demons scribbling in the air with their fire pens as they planned. Thank goodness they didn’t set off the fire alarms, really.  
  
Man, stealing one of the pens to write “Tom Marvolo Riddle” in the air was such an incredibly tempting idea.  
  
“They can change forms. Didn’t you see the four motorcycles out front?” Keith asked, raising a brow.  
  
“No, because when I was taking out the trash yesterday, _someone_ decided to terrify me by just vanishing it instead, so I haven’t been outside lately,” Lance said, kicking gently at Hunk’s shin with a smirk. He sprung up and went to peek out the window, spotting the motorcycles. Huh. Cool. He could easily imagine everyone sitting on them, too.

Hunk pouted. “I was trying to help,” he said insistently, “At least that’s not more pollution on the Earth, right?”  
  
“....Oh my goodness! _That’s it!”_ Lance shouted, jumping up and down in excitement.  
  
“What’s it?” Shiro furrowed his brow, then gasped when Lance reached over and stole the pen from his hand.  
  
Lance grinned as he began to write. “The apocalypse doesn’t necessary have to be the end of the world, right? I mean, it does, but that doesn’t mean the end of all life on the planet. It means the world as we know it is, well, destroyed. You know what that can mean? It can mean burning down the bad bits and starting anew. Like, destroy capitalism as we know it and make the world a safer and happier place for everyone. That kind of thing. A people’s revolt!”  
  
He stepped back from his writing, turning to grin at everyone. “Death can steal the breath from the lungs of people like Trump and Bezos, maybe do stuff like prevent untimely deaths for people hit by drunk drivers and stuff. Pollution can take up what’s trashing the ocean and place it in the homes of those guys that are doing it. And like, toxic waste and stuff. War can fight the war on misinformation, spread the truth, that kind of thing. Famine… I, uh, admittedly don’t have any ideas for. I mean, it depends on how far we can reverse your powers, maybe? Or just, y’know, starve the one percent, make everything taste like ash, that kind of thing? Cause chaos, but _controlled_ chaos, make the world a better place while making every asshole that runs this planet shit themselves thinking it’s a real apocalypse.”  
  
The letters detailing what he’d just said glittered in the air, illuminating everyone’s shocked faces.  
  
“...That’s _incredible,”_ Shiro whispered.  
  
Keith nodded, looking thoughtful. “We were so busy thinking on how to avoid doing anything at all that we didn’t even think about doing… Well, _good_ with the powers we’ve been given.”  
  
Lance’s smile turned smug. “All you needed was some human input. And I’m definitely the prime example of a human being.”  
  
Adam laughed, smiling warmly. “Oh really now?”  
  
“Flexibility, man.” Still grinning, Lance took a small step forward and then pushed off, pulling off a neat backflip. “And strength. Plus the quickness of mind and all.”  
  
Adam blinked. Hunk nudged him and he shook his head slightly. “Well, I suppose I can’t argue with that.”  
  
Hunk, Shiro, and Keith, all grouped up again to brainstorm further, while Adam chose to take a break to talk to Lance.  
  
“So, how does it feel to have outsmarted four demons?” Adam asked with a half smile.  
  
“Pretty great, considering I basically just stopped you guys from ending up needing to destroy the planet or something.” Lance snickered a bit, then grew serious. “Could I ask a favor of you?”  
  
“Sure. Can’t guarantee it’ll be done, but you can ask.”  
  
Lance rolled his eyes. “Ha, ha. Okay, uh.” He sputtered his lips, shifting from foot to foot nervously. “So, like. This might be against some rules or probably unethical, but... Would you be willing to test Curtis? Sometimes I-I get this feeling he’s just going through the motions and he told me he was an atheist before he met me and he converted.. I just... I really dislike the idea that he’s disingenuous about it and he’s doing it to make fun of me or something. But I also... Don’t want to hurt him, if he’s being truthful about it. My instincts about him have always been wrong anyway. He... He loves me. He’s been good to me. I shouldn’t have asked you for this, I’m sorry…” **  
** **  
** “It’s not against any rules. Yes, there are people I get pointed at by Higher Authorities, but if I have a feeling, I’m allowed to do things on my own.” He smiled gently at Lance. “If he is being truthful, if you really did change him, then there’s usually a reward at the end of these things for people who come through with their faith intact, so it won’t be all suffering for no purpose. And I can promise not to be too hard on him?”  
  
Biting his lip, Lance nodded. “Yeah. I mean. I wouldn’t have minded him staying an atheist, and like, that would have been way better than him faking, if he is? Y’know, don’t, like, break his leg, or something, but you can, y’know, break his umbrella, or something.”  
  
Adam chuckled slightly. “No excessive bodily harm. I promise.”  
  
“ _Pinkie_ promise.” Still looking serious, Lance held out his pinkie finger.  
  
Adam raised his brows, but complied, holding Lance’s pinkie in his briefly.  
  
Lance nodded very decisively. “Good. Thanks. For helping me out.”  
  
“It’s nothing, Lance. You _are_ literally just asking me to do my job.”  
  
Lance snickered. 

“I’ll go ahead and get started on it. You boys have the apocalypse handled for now,” Adam murmured. “See you in a bit.” He vanished.  
  
“You guys give me the heebie-jeebies when you do that,” Lance muttered to himself, going to the kitchen to make up some lunch for everyone. God, he’d missed spaghetti.  
  
*  
  
Curtis groaned loudly as yet another snag in his perfect plan cropped up. He’d been having a long series of incidents that seemed completely designed to turn his life upside down.  
  
First, in the middle of his final presentation, he knocked his coffee cup over and fried his laptop.  
  
Then, he got a very cold “we’ll be in touch” at the end of the meeting, never any good.  
  
His flight home got cancelled and the airline had tried to send him to a hotel room with a stranger that only had one bed. (He opted to take the train, instead.)  
  
The conversation he’d had with his lover had him on edge. He hadn’t gotten an email alert for the cleaning company coming to their home.  
  
The train was stuffed full of people, requiring Curtis to _stand,_ squished, next to a bunch of rowdy teenagers who smelled like they hadn’t bathed in six months.  
  
It was only after they pulled into the station that Curtis realized he’d have to take an Uber, because he’d never updated Lance on any of this so Lance could be waiting for him.  
  
“Goddamnit,” he muttered to himself as he pulled out his phone to call an Uber. It was too late to call Lance; he would take a half hour to get there and an Uber would be there in ten minutes. Waiting was too much.  
  
And with his suspicions about Lance’s lies, he would rather surprise him at home and have proof. Much easier that way.  
  
His streak of awful luck continued when he stepped out of the Uber and immediately was ankle deep in a puddle of cold slush. He wobbled for a moment, trying not to fall, and then faceplanted into the snowbank. The driver squealed tires peeling out, not caring one whit about the sad man in the snow. Sputtering and letting out a scream into the snow, Curtis stood up and hobbled into the house.  
  
“LANCE!” he roared.  
  
Things clattered in the kitchen and Lance appeared, flushed in the face. “Curtis, baby! You’re home; I was so worried about you. I saw the flight cancellation online and then you never called me or anything, but I figured you just left your phone off or something. I was actually about to call the police…”  
  
“Don’t you lie to me,” Curtis said furiously, stepping forward menacingly. “You shut up, worthless whore!”  
  
Lance gasped, going wide-eyed as he stumbled back and stared at Curtis in shock. “What? _What?”_  
  
“I never got the confirmation email from the cleaning company,” he said darkly, “So I know you were lying about it. You must be cheating on me.”  
  
“...Curtis, baby,” Lance said softly, holding his hands up, “I used _my_ email. I was distracted by the kitten while I was on the phone with them and I meant to use yours, but I goofed it. They _did_ come. That’s my fault, and I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to cause you distress.”  
  
Curtis’s face twisted as he looked Lance over. The slight tremble to his hands—good, Lance knew his place still. But the open, worried look on Lance’s face just screamed honesty.  
  
“I’m sorry,” he finally muttered, “It’s been a horrible, godawful day.”  
  
Lance frowned. “Hey, come on, you know how I feel about that kind of language.”  
  
And Curtis snapped again.  
  
“I’ll say whatever the fuck I want!” he roared, stepping closer to Lance again, pinning him against the wall, “I’m the man of this house and if I goddamn want to say _goddamn,_ then I goddamn will! Fuck your god, anyway! He doesn’t exist! Believing in him is like believing in fucking _Santa Claus._ Grow the fuck up, Lance, and stop being such a childish, annoying, incompetent, _freak.”_  
  
Lance whimpered. He drew himself up to stand tall and glared daggers at Curtis.  
  
“Get out of my house.”  
  
Curtis scoffed.  
  
“You heard me, Curtis. Leave. You’re not welcome here anymore. I’m breaking up with you. We’re over. Done. Leave. I won’t be with a liar like you. An _abuser_ like you.” Lance crossed his arms. “Leave now and never come back.”  
  
“I don’t have to do anything,” Curtis sneered.  
  
“Hunk, please show him out.”  
  
Curtis blinked, and there was a demon standing before him. Eyes blood red, giant swirling horns, long thin tail whipping around him, and dark cloak flapping about menacingly.  
  
“Would you like to take the door… or my portal to Hell?” Hunk said in a soft, almost pleasing purr, if he hadn’t looked so threatening.  
  
Curtis gaped. Then he ran. Hunk followed closely behind for a few moments, ensuring he left, then turned back in. He dropped the glamour that gave him the more demonic appearance, leaving him with just his horns and tail in his casual clothes, eyes the soft brown they usually were.  
  
“Hey, Lance… You gonna be okay, man?” he asked, concern written all over his face.  
  
Lance’s smile was wobbly. “Yeah, yeah, I’ll be fine,” he said, voice cracking, “Just fine…” His knees collapsed and he fell to the floor, sobbing and shaking.  
  
Hunk made a distressed sound picked Lance up, moving him to the couch. Lance clung to Hunk as they sat down, still shaking like a leaf in a tornado clinging desperately to its tree. The sobs wrenched themselves from somewhere deep in Lance’s gut. It almost felt like vomiting, in a way. His throat tore with the force of it, the ugly sounds permeating the air. He barely felt Hunk’s hand rubbing up and down his back in a soothing motion as Lance cried into Hunk.  
  
“He-He-He…” Lance stammered over the words, his jaw aching, trying not to bite down on his tongue as he tried to explain how he felt in that moment. Gut-wrenched. Horrified. Betrayed. Terrified.  
  
Hunk shushed him gently, still rubbing his back. “You don’t need to talk right now,” he murmured, “Just let yourself feel first.”  
  
Lance nodded almost imperceptibly, wailing against Hunk’s shoulder as the tears kept coming and coming with no signs of slowing down. His face felt gross and sticky and his nose was leaking and he felt fucking _terrible._  
  
Eventually, though, the tears _did_ slow, and the sobs slowly dissipated into hiccups and coughs as Lance regained control of himself. He pulled away after a few moments of calmly resting against Hunk’s shoulder, grabbing at the tissue box on the side table to blow his nose and dab at his eyes.  
  
“I can’t believe it,” he said hollowly, “I mean, I can, but… you know.”  
  
Hunk nodded. “Yeah, I get it, man. I’m sorry it happened like this.”  
  
Lance shook his head. “I’m not. I’m glad I… Saw this happen before he beat the shit out of me or something. It’s a really hard realization. That he was…” Lance shivered. “Y’know. Abusive. A liar. And a total fucking jackass.”  
  
Hunk snorted. “Yeah. It’s hard to see it objectively from in the inside. We all saw it when we first came here. But, uh.”  
  
“Yeah, I wasn’t ready to accept it.”  
  
“To say the least.”  
  
Lance rolled his eyes. “Romelle, my BFF? She was always trying to convince me to leave him. All of the things she said hit at once, right then.” He sighed. “I’m... Fuck, this sucks.”  
  
Hunk patted Lance’s shoulder. “At least this is your house. And you have friends. A nice support network. You’re not alone, you don’t have to run anywhere.”  
  
“Yeah.” Lance curled in on himself, sighing again. “Fuck. I’m hungry. And cold.” He perked up almost immediately and slapped at Hunk’s arm repeatedly. “Oh my goodness. Hunk. _Hunk._ I can have pizza!”  
  
He whipped out his phone and pulled up his favorite pizza ordering app. “Hey, do you think the others will want some pizza, too? Man. I should invite Romelle over, too. We can have a whole pizza party! What toppings do you guys like?”  
  
Hunk blinked. “Uh, well. I like a good Hawaiian pizza. Keith, too. Shiro thinks it’s blasphemous and won’t eat the mushrooms, but anything else is fair game. Adam likes pretty much anything, he’ll eat the Hawaiian or pepperoni or meat lovers or what have you.”  
  
“Okay, Romelle loves a good meat lovers, so that’s a Hawaiian and a meat lovers. Everybody’s happy. I dunno how much anyone eats so I’ll get larges. Now, uh. Do y’all like Pepsi or Sprite or?”  
  
“Pepsi should be fine, I guess? Shiro’s more of a tea fan, but I’m okay with soda.”  
  
Nodding, Lance placed the order for delivery, getting a cheery “we’ll be there in 30 minutes!” notification. Immediately after, he called Romelle.  
  
“Hey, Worm!” he said in a sing-song, “Guess who’s having a pizza party?”  
  
“Uhh, hey, Bear. I guess it’s you, since you sound so happy! I haven’t heard you so happy in months!” Romelle chirped, “What’s the occasion? Won’t Curtis—”  
  
“I kicked the bastard out.”  
  
Stunned silence. “....Wow, what… Uh, what made you do that?”  
  
“Uh…” Lance inhaled slowly. “He told me that, uh. Basically that my God could go fuck Himself. So. He’s a lying piece of bastard pie and I kicked him out. The pizza’ll be here in 30 minutes or so, and I have some other friends over, if you wanna come chill.”  
  
“Of course I do! This should be celebrated! Be over in a jiffy.”  
  
Lance could practically hear the grin in Romelle’s voice and chuckled slightly. “The death of my relationship should be celebrated? Damn, coldhearted, Worm.”  
  
Romelle scoffed. “You know what I mean, Bear. Now hush so I can hang up.”  
  
“As the lady requests,” Lance said in his best posh voice, hanging up.  
  
Hunk gave him an amused grin. “Bear? Worm?”  
  
“We always had gummy snacks in class. I picked bears, she had worms. It got turned into nicknames.”  
  
Hunk nodded, texting Adam, Shiro, and Keith, so they could pop in for the pizza. Moments later, they appeared in the living room, scaring Lance off the couch.  
  
“Lance!” Adam rushed forward and helped Lance off the floor, unable to help chuckling a little.  
  
Lance himself also laughed, clinging to Adam as he stood up, then brushed himself off. “Man, I’m really not used to you guys doing that. You know the pizza won’t be here for a while, right?”  
  
“Yeah, so?” Keith said, “We’ve got time.”  
  
Adam grinned. “Yes, our unpleasant business for the day is over with,” he said, sharing an unreadable look with Hunk.  
  
Lance decided not to worry about it. It probably meant some Apocalypse Death Man Business, and right now, he just wanted to worry about eating some delicious pizza.  
  
The doorbell buzzed and Lance hopped up to get the door, grinning at the practical angel behind it. “Hey, Worm!”  
  
“Hey, Bear.” Romelle smiled warmly and wrapped him up in a hug, which Lance leaned into with a happy sigh.  
  
“Come on in. The pizza guy hasn’t gotten here yet, but my friends are. Shiro, Keith, Hunk, and Adam,” he said, introducing tem as he stepped aside and shut the door.  
  
“...Oh, I know _exactly_ who they are, Lance,” Romelle said, ice in her tone.  
  
Lance shivered. “Uh? What do you mean by that?” he asked with a nervous laugh, “I met them earlier in the week, they’re pretty chill.”  
  
“...Huh. You’re _that_ Romelle,” Adam said, pushing his glasses up his nose and striding across the room to stand over her, arms crossed.  
  
Thunder rumbled outside, lightning flashed, and suddenly Adam had his horns and tail and Romelle had fucking _wings._  
  
“Would someone care to explain to the idiot human what’s going on here?!” Lance shouted, terrified that something would happen.  
  
“What’s happening is this _snake—”_  
  
“Excuse me?! I was _not_ the serpent, you feather-brained _harpy—”_  
  
“You _bastard!”_  
  
“Oh, dear, you _do_ know that’s completely untrue, don’t you? I was created from pure essence, just like you, only I Fell. No human parents to be married… or not, as the case is supposed to be.”  
  
“I fucking hate you,” Romelle muttered, crossing her arms. “You hit me with that one every time.”  
  
“Only because you never learn your lesson.” Adam grinned sharply.  
  
“....That explained nothing, you know,” Lance said, mildly irritated. “I’d like to know why my best friend and my new friend are insulting each other.”  
  
“Oh, Romelle and I have known each other for millennia. We fight all the time like this.”  
  
“It used to be a lot worse,” Romelle said, chuckling, “But we’re on good terms, these days. For the most part.”  
  
“...Okayyyy… And, uh, Rom, just when did you plan on telling me you’re a freaking angel?”  
  
“When you died,” she said primly.  
  
Adam snorted.  
  
“Well, it’s the truth. Anyhow…” She frowned. “Did Lance leave him because of you, then?”  
  
“Hey!”  
  
Adam chuckled slightly. “I provided some… tense situations. Lance asked me to test him. I did. Curtis failed miserably, and Lance broke up with him of his own accord. Nothing more.”  
  
Romelle relaxed, pulling Lance into another hug and wrapping him with her wings. “Mm. Good. I’m glad you finally cut that cantankerous cancer from your life.”  
  
“Me too,” Lance mumbled, hiding his face in her neck as a few tears squeezed out. “I’m sorry I never listened to you. But it’s like that line from that show, I guess. When you wear rose-colored glasses all the red flags just look like flags.”  
  
Romelle hummed softly. “You don’t have to be sorry for being abused so badly, Lance. It’s all Curtis’s fault, not yours.”  
  
The doorbell rang again and they disentangled, the supernaturals in the room restoring their human glamours as Lance answered the door. He handed the pizza guy the pay and tip, then spread it out over the kitchen counter.  
  
“Dig in!”

*

Lance sighed as he finally put down his plate, stuffed to the gills. The cheer as they ate had faded and he felt awful. "Damn, Curtis would hate it if he could see me now. He'd probably shout the house down." He chuckled slightly and sighed, swirling his soda glass. “...The worst part is, I really did love him. He was so amazing and earnest at first and then he started, I dunno, chipping away at what makes me me. I didn't get it, or refused to, I thought he was just trying to help me and it got worse and worse until I was that damn frog sitting in boiling water, unaware that I was getting torn apart.”

He hugged himself. “He just wanted someone to control and I was an easy target. I didn't have any friends besides Romelle, and my family lives miles and miles away, and I'm still an insecure stupid-ass who hates himself. Hates what he's become.” He shuddered. “And selfish, too. Because all I can think about is my own stupid love life problems instead of, I dunno, doing something to fight back against the evil dickheads trying to make the apocalypse worse than it already is, like Zarkon.”  
  
“You can’t reasonably expect to be able to fight against the strongest demons in Hell,” Hunk pointed out, shifting closer and pulling Lance into a hug. “You’re doing enough by providing us a safe place to regroup. And we haven’t even fought any big fights yet.”  
  
“Oh, that reminds me,” Romelle said suddenly, standing, “I better put some extra wards on the property. Block out as many of us as I can. It used to be fairly lax, but with these new developments of you hoarding the four Horsemen in here, Lance, I need to tighten them.”  
  
Lance blinked. “You put protective spells on my home?”  
  
“Yup. After all, what else is your guardian angel supposed to do?” she said with a wide grin, bowing.  
  
“Guardian. Angel. You’re… my guardian angel. _Wow._ Okay. Are you guys supposed to be friends with your… missions?”  
  
Romelle shook her head. “No, I broke several rules by ever talking to you in more than passing. But nobody pays attention to the goody-two-shoes, now do they?” She smirked. “I decided that I couldn’t be very good at my job if I didn’t also make sure you were happy. You needed someone. I was the obvious choice. You can’t force friendship, after all.”  
  
Lance smiled. “Thanks, Rom. I love you so freaking much.”  
  
“I love you too, Lance. Be right back.” With another flourishing bow, she popped out of the house.  
  
Lance heaved a big sigh, leaning into Hunk. “I guess I should’ve listened to her sooner about Curtis. She really _did_ know better.”  
  
“You can’t blame yourself, Lance,” Shiro said softly, giving Lance his best “sparkly-eyed-concerned-puppy” face, “You were manipulated. You did it in the end, right? And you’re already better for it.”  
  
“Yeah. It just… still hurts. Because I loved him, and a part of me still does, and I hate it. I don’t want to be like this.” Lance hunched his shoulders. “I just want to be normal again already.”  
  
“It’ll take time,” Adam jumped in, “But we’ll make sure you have it. The apocalypse doesn’t only just happen in a week, after all. It’ll be a long road and we’ve just begun. Take your time to heal, and we’ll be here for you.”  
  
Lance smiled softly at the affirmations from the other three, leaning heavily into Hunk. “Thanks, guys. I know we literally met like, two days ago, but. This is really nice.”  
  
Keith snorted. “Well, if we’re going to be using your home as our base, we kind of have to be. Besides, Shiro and Hunk always move fast when it comes to making friends as soon as they’ve decided to be someone’s friend. Adam and I are just along for the ride.”  
  
Lance snickered, both at the embarrassed looks on Shiro and Hunk’s faces, and Adam’s resigned one. This was nice. He could take his time. Things would be okay.  
  
As much as they could be, considering the whole apocalypse thing.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, art by the lovely griffonskies!

A month later, life was chugging along just nicely for Lance. He felt lighter than he had in years, and safer to boot. He felt so free. Nobody to interrupt his morning yoga begging for sex. Nobody to tell him he couldn’t have a cookie because he needed to watch his figure. Nobody to yell at him for being annoying. Nobody to roll their eyes because he wanted to play video games.  
  
Sure, he kind of had an obligation to his new demonic roommates and causing the end of the world, but they mostly hung out instead of talking business when they were all in their off times.  
  
Everything felt just peachy, even though the world was going to hell in a handbasket. At least, depending on who you talked to. Watching the events unfold upon the tyrants, dictators, CEO’s, and billionaires of the world was delightful. Keith rallying the people in revolution against evil leadership. Adam quietly snuffing the life from a few people here and there, important and not, but all kinds who deserved to go to Hell. Hunk diverting pollution dumps from water sources to their precious golf courses. And Shiro, the cause of the mysterious “Ash Food Disease”, as the public called it, because he made the kinds of people who purchased pizza topped with _gold_ only taste ash when they ate at all, making them all reluctant to even eat. Of course, other people got these, but they weren’t important so they didn’t matter to the media except as scary numbers.  
  
It was a perfect storm.  
  
And Lance was beginning to realize he had a very unavoidable crush on Adam. Death. Humanity’s Adversary. Which, uh, _hahaha!_ Scared him _to_ death! Fuck! How was he supposed to deal with that?! He was a human, Adam was not, could he make it any more obvious?  
  
Groaning, Lance flopped backwards onto the couch, one arm thrown over his torso, and the other over his eyes. He really didn’t know how to approach this, or even if he should. Was he even ready for a new relationship? He thought so. Plus, Adam was just… so kind. And witty. Sarcastic, smart, funny. Pretty. And that bastard totally knew what he was doing every time he pushed his glasses up his nose like that. He probably didn’t even need them. Lance would bet money that Adam did that on purpose just to torture people.  
  
“What do I do to torture people?” Adam asked, sounding bemused, and outright laughing when Lance screamed and fell off the couch.  
  
“You asshole,” Lance gasped, pulling himself off the floor and sitting up on the couch again. “I’m not telling you anything, not after you scared me half to death.”  
  
“Oh, stop exaggerating, I’d know if _I_ scared you halfway to me. You most definitely went away from me when you fell.”  
  
“Asshole,” Lane repeated, unable to help his own laughter now. “I’m still not telling you anything. Thinking out loud too much. Crazy shit goes on in here, and you don’t even wanna know the tiniest fraction of it.”  
  
“Mm. I’m afraid I have to disagree with that,” Adam said lightly, sitting beside Lance, “You don’t know what goes on in my head, after all. Besides, I consider you a friend. You should be able to talk to me about… well, not everything. But most things. If you’re still worried about me testing you…”  
  
Lance shook his head. “Nothing like that. I swear, this time, it’s just me being stupid. But… Thanks for being my friend, man. You’re awesome.” He smiled crookedly.  
  
Adam smiled softly back, and Lance’s heart skipped about twenty beats before choosing to rock out a delightful samba against his ribs.  
  
“Of course, Lance.”  
  
Lance swallowed. “Mhm. Anyway, hey, uh, I’m gonna, like, go to Wal-Mart. I mean, it’s, fuck, it’s like, two in the morning right now, right?” He checked his watch. Yeah, two AM on the fifteenth of February. “Perfect. They totally should have all their Valentine’s Day stuff discounted by now. Get some real sweet cookies and candy and stuff for cheap. Should be fun.”  
  
“I’ll come with you,” Adam offered.  
  
_How can I say no to this?_ Lance thought briefly, before he gave in and nodded with a wide smile. He was so totally screwed. And not even in the fun way.

  
  
*  
  
Lance hummed happily to himself as they shopped around, taking advantage of the candy that was now on sale.  
  
“I’m gonna die,” Lance declared, shoving bags and bags of Valentine’s-themed chocolate into the cart, “and I’ll do it happily. This is a great haul.”  
  
Adam snorted. “Mhm, sure you will. I think I like you too much to let you die on my watch, Lance.”  
  
Lance inhaled sharply. “Yeah? Wow. Intense, especially considering you’re Death right now. Oh, hey, so like, is Death even a person, normally, or does that concept sort of just not exist until it’s assigned to someone, aka you, for the apocalypse?”  
  
“Azrael is the Angel of Death. Normally he’s the only sort of Death being. But the rules change during the apocalypse, naturally. He and I never got along, so this is… apt, really. That I be the one to be his… foil, in a way.” Adam sighed, pushing his glasses up his nose. “Enemies to the bitter end.”  
  
“What if there _is_ no end? I mean, that’s the whole point of our mission, right?”  
  
“...I don’t know if we can stave it off forever, _ben yam.”_ Adam smiled sadly. “Maybe we win this round for Earth, but in a few centuries, who knows? Maybe Heaven and Hell will finally snap, and Zarkon and Alfor will lead their armies against each other regardless of what Adonai or even Satan say. Or maybe, because angels and demons aren’t all that different, they’ll decide to unite against Earth. It’s humanity’s fault that there was ever a separation in the first place. Even though Adonai is the One who created all of us.”  
  
Lance reached out and squeezed Adam’s shoulder. “So… angels and demons are kinda like the two older siblings, and humanity is the youngest, and they decided to fight because the youngest kid gets all the attention?”  
  
Adam blinked, then laughed softly. “Yes, that’s a good analogy. But eventually, they may realize that they would do better to just kill their sibling and make everything go back to the way it was.”  
  
Lance bit his lip. “Well… We’ll just have to hope. Or maybe we can find a way to fight against them all, if they decide to take it out on us instead of themselves. Obviously, not every agent of Hell wants to live the way they’re told to. There’s gotta be agents of Heaven who don’t like it, either. Plus, like, hello, all the souls of previous humans in either place who are sick of the shit that their keepers are doing? Maybe there’s enough of us to outnumber all the jackasses.”  
  
Adam hummed thoughtfully. “Maybe. Rather optimistic of you.”  
  
“The sun shines out of my ass,” Lance agreed, making Adam double over in laughter.  
  
They continued browsing for a bit, occasionally grabbing more things to buy. Lance quite suddenly decided he’d like to get a cat, and gathered what meager supplies there were. He’d have to visit an actual pet store for more, but that could wait.  
  
Adam’s laugh still rang in his ears and Lance knew he’d fallen hard. Would it even be possible for them to date?  
  
Fuck it, he decided, tonight was a night to fulfill impulses and have fun. Darting back into the Valentine’s isle, he grabbed a card, and slipped back to Adam, handing it over wordlessly, anxiously. It was a simple “You’re pretty great, would you be mine?” card, but it got the point across.  
  
Adam’s brow furrowed as he looked it over and then looked at Lance. “...Do you mean this for me? As in, you want the two of us to go out?”  
  
Lance nodded, mouth dry. “Yeah,” he managed to whisper, “I mean, if you don’t want…”  
  
Adam smiled crookedly, placing the card back on the shelf. “Well—”  
  
“Adam, darling,” Lotor greeted as he magically appeared with horrendously bad timing, pecking Adam on the lips. “Father is insisting on answers, so I’m out here pretending to get them.”  
  
Lance made a strangled noise, stumbling backwards and falling right on his ass.  
  
“Oh dear.” Lotor peered over at him curiously, while Adam rolled his eyes and stepped around Lotor to help Lance up.  
  
“Lance, meet Lotor. Lotor, this is Lance.” Adam smiled a bit awkwardly. “Lotor is my… Something. His father is Zarkon, king of Hell, greatest demon, etc, etc. He’s been tasked with supervising the apocalypse.”  
  
Lance was blushing a bright red as he nodded. “Ah, yeah, hi, hello,” he stammered, “Good to meet you. I’m Lance, apparent housekeeper to the four demons ruining the apocalypse.” _Fuck. Adam’s dating someone? Fuck fuck fuck._  
  
Lotor laughed lightly. “Yes, I’ve heard a lot about you,” he said, amused, “Adam can’t seem to shut up about you.”  
  
Adam whacked Lotor lightly on the shoulder. “ _Halev nasikh,_ please, don’t tease him. Is there any information you’ll need to feed to your father to keep him off our backs for a little while longer? Or anything he’ll have us do?”  
  
Lotor sighed. “I’m not even sure. All I know is the results aren’t what he wants. He gave no specifics. Other than ‘start wiping out all of Earth’, which. It could appear like that’s what you are all up to, depending on who you ask.”  
  
Adam sighed as well. “We’ll come up with something,” he promised, “Even if we don’t like it, we need to do something to throw him off.”  
  
Lotor nodded, leaning in and giving Adam a deeper kiss. “I trust you, dearest.” He glanced at Lance and smirked, looking back at Adam. “He’s a keeper.”  
  
Adam blushed lightly and pushed Lotor away with a grumble. “Yes, yes, well. You’ve met him. I gather you approve.”  
  
Lotor grinned. “Yes.” He turned back to Lance again. “You seem like a good person, Lance. I like you well enough. I daresay that Adam needs your bright personality around more often than he cares to admit.” He disappeared before Adam could whack him for that, his laugh echoing in the empty space.  
  
“Ass,” Adam muttered.  
  
“...What did he mean by all that?” Lance asked, bewildered.  
  
“...Let’s go check out first,” Adam evaded, “We’ll talk once we’re out of here.”  
  
Lance nodded, apprehensive and confused.  
  
*  
  
“Fuck, it’s still too cold to be outside,” Lance grumbled as they shoved the shopping into his car and then got inside, warming up with a happy sigh.  
  
“No kidding,” Adam murmured, holding his hands right up to the air vents.  
  
“...So, um. You had something to tell me?” Lance asked hesitantly.  
  
“Yes.” After a beat, Adam turned in his seat to look Lance in the eyes. “I really like you, Lance. Romantically. What Lotor was saying earlier was him giving his blessing for us to date. Because I’d asked him about you before.”  
  
Lance’s jaw dropped. “...You... wait, you…” He floundered for words, feeling like a fish out of water.  
  
“Yes, Lance, I like you. And I have permission to date you.” Adam smiled softly. “And it’s a happy, mutual agreement, nothing like the kind of permissions you needed from Curtis. Lotor make me happy, and so do you.”  
  
“...Oh.” Lance’s brain felt like it was offline and he lifted a shaky hand, running it through his hair, and inhaled deeply. “Oh. So. If we’re all happy with that arrangement, and I definitely am, and we both like each other, and all that… and everything’s okay… Then… Can I kiss you?”  
  
Adam’s smile got even softer, somehow, as he leaned in, breath ghosting across Lance’s lips. “Yes.”  
  
Lance’s eyes slid shut, heart racing, as he leaned in that last little bit for their lips to meet. He lifted a hand again, this time to place it on Adam’s cheek as he tilted his head just right with a soft groan. He couldn’t believe this was happening. But it was and Adam was so close, and so, so warm, and soft, and he smelled so _amazing,_ and Lance could have just stayed there, lips moving against Adam’s with tiny nibbles and short pants of breath, until he realized that wasn’t really getting any oxygen in his body and he had to pull back, eyes dark as he looked into Adam’s also darkened eyes, and smiled.  
  
“Wow. You’re... wow.”  
  
Adam giggled. _Giggled!_ “I’ll take that a a compliment, then. I sort of forgot you needed to breathe. Sorry.”  
  
Lance tilted his head in confusion. “But don’t you have a body? Surely you need to breathe.”  
  
“Not as often as you. My body is different from yours. It’s more…” He paused, eyes squinting slightly as he searched for the right words to say. “It’s more a manifesting of our souls, than something concrete like that. Of course, because it is still a body there are basic things we need to do, but it’s different. It’s more… Hm.”  
  
“Like Steven from Steven Universe?”  
  
Adam blinked.  
  
“He’s half-human and half-alien, a type of alien that literally doesn’t need to eat or sleep or have any kind of bodily functions at all. He needs _some_ sleep and food and stuff, but, like. He could survive on less than what he does, but he does it the normal amount for humans because he likes it better that way.” Lance hummed. “Though I guess if you can ignore the breathing thing, it makes sucking dick a lot easier.”  
  
Adam choked on his sudden laugh, shaking his head. “There truly is no moment of boredom with you, _ben yam._ ” He grinned. “But yes, that sounds similar.”  
  
Lance grinned back. “Cool. Glad I can be so entertaining,” he joked, throwing the car in reverse and backing out to take them home. “Speaking of sleep… I can’t wait to get into bed.”


	4. Chapter 4

The apocalypse was getting worse.  
  
Lance sat near the window, watching the outdoors anxiously. Spring had come, the snow was gone, but everything felt pale. Even with their plans to keep the apocalypse toned down, there was still massive amounts of death, war, and panicking going on. The Earth itself was getting healthier, but somehow… the world just felt like it looked paler, if that made any sense.  
  
God, it probably didn’t, and Lance was just an idiot. He sighed, leaning his head against the cool glass. The fights between the demons and angels were growing every day. Scuffles that caused minor disasters, unexplainable by science. War battles that left many injured, despite their desperate attempts to bring proper justice.  
  
Even so, Adam had ensured making time for them to go on dates, as often as they could. Lance could feel himself falling deeper in love, and as much as it scared and worried him, he felt like things were finally going right.  
  
Ironic.  
  
Sometimes Lotor came around too, usually under the guise of whipping the demons into shape to please his father, but mostly so that he could just be around the others without the watchful eyes of Zarkon, or Sendak, or any number of the other demons who gloried in being evil. This time, when Lance could feel himself liking another demon, it frightened him beyond belief. Lotor was Zarkon’s son. Sure, polyamory was cool with him, and Adam and told him that he and Lotor had dated thirds in their relationship before, but he wasn’t sure he was ready for that kind of thing, especially with Lotor so close to the real danger.  
  
He sighed and heard the familiar snake-y sound of a demon using shadow travel and as he turned to greet whoever had come home, he gasped instead as he saw Adam, swaying on his feet, bloodied from head to toe.  
  
Lance rushed forward, taking Adam in his arms and ushering him to the couch, laying him down as gently as possible. Even so, Adam groaned in pain, making Lance wince in sympathy.  
  
“Fuck, babe, this looks bad,” he fretted as he moved to disrobe Adam.  
  
“Looks worse than it feels,” Adam whispered, coughing, “Most of the blood isn’t even mine. Fucking Gabriel showed up. Kicked his ass. He kicked mine back. But I won.”  
  
“You didn’t kill him, did you?” Lance asked, somewhere between horrified and amused as he left Adam in just his underwear.  
  
“No. I took the opportunity to shadow-travel away. Wasn’t even thinking about where, just… somewhere safe. Took me here.” Adam smiled weakly as Lance started cleaning the blood off him.  
  
“Aw. Well, you were right. You’re not that bad off. Got a nasty bruise right in your solar plexus, among other, but that one’s gonna be the worst,” Lance noted, going and getting the first aid kit. “You do have a head wound, though. Lemme just get some gauze on that.”  
  
After checking and making sure it wasn’t too serious, Lance cleaned the gash and wrapped Adam’s head.  
  
“What’s the diagnosis, doctor?” Adam asked teasingly.  
  
“Pfft. You’re alive. I think you’ll be okay. I hope. I mean, I dunno how your body reacts to injuries or anything, but.”  
  
“I’ll be up and running around in a few days. He got me good, and I need to take it easy for a bit.”  
  
Lance smiled, relieved. “Good. Good. I’m glad you’re okay.”  
  
“Mhm.” Adam laid his head back, relaxing, and Lance just sat by him for a while, petting his hair.  
  
“You know, I’d totally punch Gabriel if he showed up,” Lance remarked, making Adam laugh.  
  
“Lance, please don’t,” he said as he giggled, “I don’t want to be dating some smoten sludge.”  
  
“Psh! You’re assuming he would. I’d be too quick. Hi-yah!” He demonstrated a fake karate chop, nearly falling over, and making Adam laugh harder.  
  
“ _Lance!”_  
  
“Whaaaat?”  
  
Adam just shook his head as his laughter subsided, wincing slightly. “You’re sweet.”  
  
“Mm, the sweetest.”  
  
“...I’m surprised you haven’t been staring at me.”  
  
“Huh?”  
  
Adam gestured down his nearly naked body. Lance looked without thinking and blushed to the roots of his hair, stammering.  
  
“Uh, uh, I mean, uh, yeah, you’re nice to look at, holy crow, you have a good body, and, uh, I mean—” He cut himself off to cough once and look away.  
  
“You okay?”  
  
“Yeah. Just, um. _Wow._ Kinda wanna fuck you, and I feel bad about, cuz you’re inured, but, like, as much as I want it, I’m also kinda, like, scared, and stuff.”  
  
Adam blinked. “Just nervous because it’s me, or because of other things?”  
  
“Both. You’re awesome and I’m totally into you, but, like, I dunno what sorts of things you like in bed, or like, the things… You might think about _my_ body, or if you even _want_ to bottom… I mean, uh. Curtis never let me top. And he wasn’t really that great at topping, either, so it was a real lose-lose when it came to sex. He never, um, wanted to improve. Figured he was doing a good enough job. Probably thought he was being magnanimous by having sex with me at all.” Lance hunched his shoulders. “He didn’t like touching me very much, so I haven’t exactly had much good experience. I wouldn’t even really know what to do. Sorry, I’m talking too much, you probably don’t even want to hear about that asshole.”  
  
Adam’s face softened as he looked at Lance, gently grabbing his chin and tilting his head up. “ _Ben yam,_ I don’t like hearing about the things Curtis has done to you, but not because I’m jealous. It’s because it’s caused you so much hurt. I want to know how to help you, which means hearing about the things he did. You can’t soothe an ache when you don’t know what’s causing it or where it’s at. You’re an amazing individual, and I want to help you grow after Curtis stomped all over you.”  
  
Lance smiled crookedly. “Fuck, you’re too good for me,” he whispered, “Thank you.” Taking a deep breath, he continued, “So, um, there’s this other thing, and… Do you know much about human perception of gender?”  
  
Adam nodded. “I’m more involved with humanity than most demons or angels. I wouldn’t say I’m any expert, but I have some knowledge to draw from, for whatever you’re about to explain to me.”  
  
“Oh. Cool. Good. Um.” He sucked in a deep breath. “So. I’m a trans guy. Which means I was born a girl but, like, my soul is a guy?”  
  
“Oh, I’m familiar with that concept,” Adam said, eyes lighting up, “It’s so interesting to me. Angels and demons don’t really have a here nor there about gender, but it’s fascinating. I’m sorry for the turmoil you must go through about this, though. With the other humans being how they are about gender changes.”  
  
Lance sighed in relief. “Oh, I’m so glad you’re okay with this. Curtis… He was supposed to be, but… He really wasn’t.” He leaned his head on Adam’s shoulder. “It is hard. But it’s made easier by people like you. Thanks.”  
  
Adam hummed. “Of course, _ben yam._ You deserve to be supported. Now… I don’t mind if you’d like to top me, but do you have a strap-on?”  
  
Lance blushed again. “Um, yeah. I didn’t ever get to use it, but that’s for the best, really. Would not want to stick that in you after it’d been in Curtis, no matter how good a washing I gave it.”  
  
“Ugh. Certainly not.”  
  
Lance snickered, standing and running up to his room to retrieve his gear, thundering back down the stairs and practically launching himself from the last two steps over to the couch.  
  
Adam chuckled at the eager behavior. “Don’t exhaust yourself before we’ve even begun,” he said, amused.  
  
“Psh. I got energy for days, babe,” Lance bragged, only then looking at Adam’s body and remembering he was hurt. “Uh, you sure you’re gonna be okay if we do this?”  
  
“I’m sure. I promise.” He smiled slyly as he lifted his hips and slowly removed his boxers, giving Lance a teasing little strip-down.  
  
Lance swallowed once, surprised at how much he salivated at the sight of Adam’s cock, and knelt between Adam’s legs on the couch after stripping down, not really caring enough to make a show of it. He reached out and tenderly stroked Adam’s cock, giving it gentle pulls and humming as it swelled beneath his hand.  
  
“Tease.”  
  
“The best.” Lance grinned sharply and nipped at the tip of Adam’s cock, watching him jolt and shudder. After a moment of Adam pouting at him, Lance laughed and picked up the lube, stretching Adam thoroughly with a few teasing brushes near his prostate.  
  
“You really _are_ a tease,” Adam groaned, hips bucking into the motions.  
  
“I told you.” Lance’s smugness radiated off of him and he ducked his head to give Adam’s cock a quick lick, taking great joy in hearing Adam cry out. He continued his slow pace, sucking gently at the head and fondling Adam’s balls oh-so-carefully.  
  
“I’m ready, I’m ready, please, Lance, I want you inside me,” Adam begged, falling apart quickly.  
  
Lance slipped off Adam’s cock with a salacious grin. “Mm. Doesn’t take much to rile you up,” he noted, “I thought you demons were all about pride.”  
  
Adam scoffed. “The Seven Deadly Sins are hardly—” He cut himself off with a loud moan as Lance’s fingers, still inside, brushed over his prostate. _“Please.”_  
  
Lance laughed softly and buckled his harness on, attaching the simple dildo to it (he would likely order some more adventurous ones soon) and then turned a small bullet vibrator on. Slicking it up, he tucked it inside himself with a soft moan and then lined up with Adam’s hole, watching in fascination as Adam’s cock twitched and leaked precum, watching as _his_ cock pressed obscenely against Adam’s hole.  
  
“Fuck, that looks good,” he said, voice raw.  
  
“It’ll look even better when you actually get inside,” Adam persuaded, wrapping his legs around Lance’s waist.  
  
“Sorry. Having a bit of a moment.” Lance smiled weakly.  
  
“You’re okay, _ben yam._ I was only teasing.” Adam reached up and ruffled Lance’s hair, making him chuckle, roll his eyes, and bat Adam’s hand away.  
  
“Okay, okay, _miel,_ hold on.” Grinning, Lance slowly started to move in, gasping softly at the sight. Oh, Adam had been right. “I can’t feel anything, so you gotta let me know if it’s going okay.”  
  
“Oh, it’s more than okay, though you could stand to go faster,” Adam said with a groan, head falling back into the cushions.  
  
Lance snorted. “Impatient brat,” he teased, moving in at a steady pace until he bottomed out. After giving Adam a few moments to adjust, he pulled back until just the head rested inside Adam, and then slammed his hips back in at a brutal pace.  
  
“Oh, _shit,”_ Adam moaned, legs tightening around Lance’s waist, “Oh, fuck, yes.”  
  
Encouraged, Lance moved again, keeping up the hard thrusts, even if it made him a bit slower. It was clearly working, judging by how wrecked Adam looked. Hair mussed, face red, mouth slightly open as he panted and moaned. Lance couldn’t help but lean down and kiss him as he railed him, slipping his tongue inside Adam’s mouth with a moan of his own.  
  
Adam kissed him back, hand tangling in Lance’s hair and tugging gently, delighting in the resulting moan. “Fuck, Lance, you’re so—”  
  
“Adam, I heard you were in a fight with _Gabriel,_ are you…” Lotor trailed off as Lance yelped in surprise, bracing himself on the couch to hover over Adam, hips frozen with himself buried deep inside Adam.  
  
Adam just chuckled softly. “Yes, dearest,” he said dryly, “I am quite alright. Lance was tending to me very nicely.”  
  
Lance blushed and sputtered. “Uh, uh, uh, hi?”  
  
Lotor cleared his throat, averting his eyes. “My apologies. I see you’re fine, so I will be back later.”  
  
“Wait!” Lance called out, surprised by himself. He licked his lips and ducked his head, meeting Adam’s curious eyes, and reddened as he looked away again, back towards Lotor, who’d stopped in his motions towards the shadows.  
  
“Um. I don’t. Mind if you stick around.” He smiled weakly. “You’re hot, I’m hot, Adam’s hot, and you obviously wanna make sure your someone is doing okay. You can totally join us, I mean.”  
  
“Are you sure, Lance?” Adam asked softly, cupping Lance’s cheek. “First times do tend to be important for humans.”  
  
“I’m fucking you into the couch not long after having treated you for battle injuries,” Lance said dryly.  
  
Adam conceded with a nod, turning his head to give Lotor a lustful look. “Well, _halev nasikh,_ you heard him.”  
  
Lotor smiled, tossing his hair into a messy ponytail, and strode forward. “Fuck him slowly,” he said to Lance, who shuddered and obeyed.  
  
Adam groaned. “Not this game,” he whined pitifully.  
  
“Too bad.” Lotor smirked and divested himself of his clothes, stroking his cock and pushing the had between Adam’s lips. Adam’s eyes slid shut and he opened his mouth wide, sliding his tongue over Lotor’s cock and sucking him gently.  
  
“Fuck,” Lance breathed, almost forgetting to keep his hips moving as he watched the scene play out in front of him. They were _so. Fucking. Hot._ Lance wondered how anybody would have survived being with the both of them.  
  
“That is what’s happening,” Lotor somehow managed to say and sound completely unbothered, even as Adam sucked harder.  
  
Lance swallowed.  
  
“Faster,” Lotor ordered, and Lance once again obeyed unthinkingly, pounding into Adam, listening to the swallowed and muffled moans as Adam choked on Lotor’s cock. Fuck.  
  
Blindly, he reached for the remote to his vibrator and turned it up a few notches, gasping. “Yes,” he hissed, burying his face in Adam’s shoulder, opposite of where Adam was sucking dick like his life depended on it.  
  
Maybe it did.  
  
Lance snorted at the errant thought, picking up speed without an order from Lotor this time, listening with glee as Adam clearly picked up his own pace and Lotor gasped, moaning loudly as his hips stuttered forward in uneven thrusts.  
  
“Your mouth is heaven, my dear,” Lotor said, making Lance snort again.  
  
“You would know,” he quipped as he reached between them and squeezed Adam’s cock.  
  
Adam came suddenly and without warning, throat tightening around Lotor’s cock and making him come, too.  
  
They both sounded beautiful.  
  
God, Lance felt like such an intruder between the both of them.  
  
Shoving away the thought, he pulled out and tore off the harness, not caring that it fell to the ground, and spun the knob up to the highest speed his vibrator would go. He moaned loudly and reached between his legs to jerk at his cock frantically. Fuck, he was so close. He opened his eyes, wondering when he’d closed them, and gasped softly when he saw both Adam and Lotor watching him with interest. There was a raw, burning desire in Adam’s eyes, and a more smoldering one in Lotor’s, dampened by curiosity.  
  
Shit. Lance liked this. His head tilted back and he yelled brokenly as he came, falling back into the cushions. Fuck, that had been really good. The vibrator was still going strong inside him, making his orgasm more pleasant until the motions crossed over into the “oversensitive” category, and he cursed, wiggling it out and turning it off.  
  
“You guys are really hot,” he said weakly, cracking a grin.  
  
Both Lotor and Adam snorted.  
  
“So you said.” Adam smiled, sitting up with a groan and a sigh. “That was… incredible.”  
  
“Indeed.” Lotor leaned down, kissing Adam softly and giving him an adoring look.  
  
The thought from earlier slammed back into Lance and he averted his eyes, once again feeling like he wasn’t supposed to be here. They’d already been together for millennia. Who was he to get in the way of that?  
  
“I’ll see you later, my love. Father expects me back soon,” Lotor whispered, pressing his forehead to Adam’s.  
  
Adam hummed. “Stay safe.”  
  
“Like you did?” Lotor teased gently, chuckling at Adam’s eyeroll.  
  
“Hush. I love you. Even when you’re a brat.” Despite himself, Adam smiled.  
  
“I love you, too.” With one more kiss, Lotor blended into the shadows, and was gone.  
  
“Aww. You guys are cute.” Lance smiled, though it felt hollow. “When d’you think he’ll remember he took his clothes off?”  
  
Adam blinked, staring down at the floor, and then burst into giggles. “Oh, no. This will be fun to hear about later.”  
  
Lance laughed, the emotion feeling real, this time. He didn’t have anything to worry about.  
  
Did he?  
  
*  
  
Of one thing Adam knew — his boyfriends would be the death of him.  
  
Ever since that day they’d had sex, both Lance and Lotor had confessed to him, in private, that they both figured out they liked each other. But of course neither of them wanted to confess to _each other,_ no, and possibly disrupt the good thing they had going, _of course not._  
  
It made Adam want to tear his hair out and scream. How could they be so _stupid?_ He sighed, rubbing his hand over his face as he thought. He had to get them to talk to each other about it somehow. Bringing them together and having _him_ say it would only betray their trust in him, and he felt queasy at the idea.  
  
Fortunately, fate stepped in before Adam could shake his partners senseless.  
  
Lotor decided it would be best to communicate by _flirting._ He’d actually Googled flirting methods! The thought made Adam laugh, but it had been rather cute to witness. Lotor had approached Lance, twirling some of his hair around his fingers.  
  
Lance had, initially, giggled at the action, and then explained. Apparently that was his sister Veronica’s favorite flirting move, so he’d recognized it immediately. Then they’d kissed, and just as things were starting to get hot and heavy, Lotor was called away.  
  
Oh well. Nothing said Adam and Lance couldn’t have sex alone, though they hadn’t done anything since their first, interrupted session.  
  
Adam loved having Lance be possessive over him like he’d been the first time, but when Adam let himself fall back onto the bed, Lance hesitated.  
  
“What’s wrong, _ben yam?”_ he asked, leaning up on his elbows.  
  
“Just, um…” Lance sighed and fidgeted with the button of his pants, not undoing it just yet. “You remember the stuff I said about Curtis? How he was, like, ‘insert tab A into slot B’ about sex and never really… made me feel good?” His face turned bright red with embarrassment.  
  
Adam nodded.  
  
“Okay, well, like. I’ve been thinking? I want to bottom. I mean, most of my sexual fantasies have had me there, cuz when I play with myself that way, it feels _awesome,_ but I’ve never had… Y’know, anybody else do it half as well. And. I wanna try it, with you. But like, I dunno if you’d even _want_ to top, which is like, totally fine? But. If you do, I’d really like to get rawed.”  
  
Lance quite looked like he’d rather be anywhere else that wasn’t standing there, with Adam laid back on the bed, explaining all this, and Adam made a soft sound of concern in the back of his throat.  
  
 _“Ben yam,_ of course I’ll top for you.” He smirked. “Lotor is a bitchy bottom. I’m well-acquainted with topping.”  
  
Lance half snorted, half giggled, hiding his mouth behind his hand as some of the embarrassment drained from his posture. “Cool.”  
  
Adam sat up more properly, pushing his glasses up his nose, noting the whimper that came from Lance with delight.  
  
“Now then,” he began, clearing his throat and blushing a bit, “I do have a few questions? I’ve never slept with any… er… AFAB people. That is the correct term, yes?”  
  
Lance swallowed, nodding.  
  
“Okay. You’re going to have to guide me here a little bit. But that isn’t to say I’m not very interested in making you feel good,” Adam explained, smiling just a bit salaciously. “As you said a while ago, we are both _very_ hot. And I am _very_ turned on by the idea of shoving you into the mattress and giving you everything that Curtis never had the balls to do.”  
  
Lance gave a surprised laugh, even as pink dusted his cheeks again. Adam thought he looked gorgeous like that.  
  
“Yeah, well. I’m really into that idea myself,” Lance said with a wide grin, finally undoing his jeans and letting them fall to the floor. He slipped off his boxers and kicked them away, stripping off his shirt next. “I never did explain some of this stuff, but. I had top surgery — you can barely see the scars.” He pointed them out and Adam nodded. “I don’t want to change anything, y’know, down here, though. I’m pretty happy with it.”  
  
Adam nodded again, looking where Lance had gestured half-heartedly and licking his lips. It was enticing, really, to have Lance naked before him but the parts he most wanted to touch still so hidden from him, covered in soft brown curls.  
  
Suddenly, he realized he was thoroughly overdressed for this occasion and stood, stripping with a thought of magic, and pulled Lance flush against him.  
  
“Whoa, uh, hi.” Lance giggled, hiding his face in Adam’s shoulder. “I was not ready for that, holy shit. That was hot.”  
  
Adam chuckled, bending his head down to start sucking at a point on Lance’s neck. Lance gasped and Adam felt Lance’s hands curl into fists on his back with light scratches on his skin. Undeterred, he sucked a bit harder, grinning inwardly when Lance melted into him with a soft moan. Last time they’d been together, they’d been fueled by blind lust, hardly any foreplay to have.  
  
This time, though. They would take their time. Adam had a lot to learn about Lance, and he desperately wanted to learn all he could.  
  
Lance kneaded at Adam’s ass and nibbled at his collarbone. Adam groaned into Lance’s neck and let his fangs unfurl to scrape at the hickey he’d left. Lance’s shocked gasp, followed up by a moan, made Adam chuckle again.  
  
“Since when did you have fangs?” Lance mumbled.  
  
“Since now. Shapeshifting.” Adam pulled back to give Lance a grin, showing off the fangs.  
  
Lance exhaled slowly. “Dude, yes. That’s awesome. So like, can you do that with your dick?”  
  
Adam snickered. “Yes. Why, would you like to experiment?”  
  
Lance licked his lips. “Not tonight, but fuck yes.” Taking advantage of the break in making out, Lance twisted around Adam’s body and dropped onto his bed. Shyly, he spread his legs.  
  
“You’re gorgeous,” Adam whispered reverently, settling on the bed between Lance’s legs. “Tell me what to do, _ben yam.”_  
  
“Well, um. You can call it my hole or my cunt, and, er. Well, I think the dick is kinda obvious,” Lance explained with a nervous laugh, “And, uh. I don’t really like anal stuff, unless it’s like, um.” He coughed. “Wearing a costume plug. So. Keep all your touching to the front and you’ll figure it out.”  
  
“Mm. Understood,” Adam said, focusing. He started carefully feeling around with his fingers, running them over Lance’s lips, and then circling his hole. Lance didn’t really react and he frowned, giving Lance’s half-erect dick a few strokes. _That_ elicited a moan, and Adam pressed forward, giving it a tentative lick.  
  
“Shit!” Lance cursed, jolting. “Oh my _fuck._ Yes.”  
  
“Good?” Adam asked, grinning to himself.  
  
He could give a blowjob, if Lance wanted it. At Lance’s nod, he dived back in and took Lance’s dick into his mouth, tonguing him gently and suppressing a grin when Lance’s hands wound their way into his hair. He moved a bit closer and gave himself a moment to enjoy the weight and taste of it on his tongue. Lance tasted _so good._ He hummed in delight and then snorted when Lance’s hips jerked. _Sensitive._  
  
Sucking gently, and hearing Lance gasp, he put his fingers back to work, circling Lance’s hole as a warning and then slipped one inside him.  
  
“Shit shit shit,” Lance chanted above him, making Adam laugh internally.  
  
He slipped another finger in and then realized he was at a bit of a loss with that part. He continued to pay attention to Lance’s dick, making him writhe against the bed, but as for what to do with his fingers… He didn’t think he needed to stretch Lance out or anything, but also, there wasn’t a prostate to search for to tease Lance with. Humming in thought, even as Lance’s hips jerked in response, he just started to treat Lance’s cunt like it needed stretching. Scissoring his fingers. Curling them and pumping them.  
  
Judging by the sounds and curses falling out of Lance’s mouth, he was doing something right. He upped it to three fingers, fucking Lance harder and sucking him harder at the same time.  
  
Lance came with a loud cry, hips jerking and rubbing his juices all over Adam’s face. Fuck, that was hot. He pulled back on fingering him, gently sucking Lance’s dick until the orgasm was over and then pulled off. Wiping his face with a tissue, he grinned at Lance’s blown-away expression.  
  
“Good?”  
  
“So good. That better not be the end of the night, I could orgasm twenty times before I got tired.”  
  
Adam raised his brows. “Is that a challenge?”  
  
“....Maybe another night,” Lance conceded, “That was amazing. And you know what they say about too much of a good thing.” He grabbed at Adam and pulled him down into a heated kiss, but shortly after their tongues slid together, Lance aborted the kiss.  
  
Adam blinked. “I… Is something wrong?”  
  
“No, no, just…” Lance blushed. “It’s weird. Tasting… me… on someone else. Like I said, Curtis never, er, really touched me there unless it was to stick his dick in, so that experience was… new. Strange.”  
  
Adam nuzzled gently at Lance’s neck. “He was a bastard. And I promise I’m going to make up for everything he never did. Lotor, too. When he’s not busy, anyway.” He nibbled softly at Lance’s earlobe.  
  
Lance moaned quietly, looking at Adam through half-lidded eyes. “Yeah. Cool. Um. D’you wanna… fuck me? I think I’m good to go again, I mean.”  
  
Growling low in his throat, Adam nodded, nipping a bit more sharply and shivering at the half-moan, half-yelp from Lance.  
  
“You’re going to see stars, _ben yam,”_ he promised.  
  
“I’d better, or else I’ll think you’re bad in the sack,” Lance teased, gasping sharply when his ass was spanked.  
  
“Mouthy little brat, aren’t you?”  
  
Lance pouted. “Noooo,” he whined, “I wanna be good. Please.”  
  
Adam laughed as he fingered Lance gently, not that Lance needed it. But it was oh-so-fun to tease him. Lance’s hips jerked as he whined, wanting more attention of a different kind. Adam knew it, but he kept his lover on edge for just a little longer before he finally settled himself between Lance’s legs again, this time aligning their hips.  
  
“Ready?”  
  
“I was born ready,” Lance said, wiggling his hips again.  
  
“That’s a little weird, Lance—”  
  
“Holy shit, just shut up and _fuck me!_ Pleaaaaase!”  
  
In one smooth motion, Adam thrust himself inside Lance to the hilt, delighting in Lance’s choked moan. He felt warm as Lance’s legs wrapped around his hips encouragingly and nuzzled at Lance’s neck.  
  
“Move,” Lance demanded, and Adam laughed again, complying easily.  
  
He built up a slow, torturous pace. Whenever Lance started getting huffy and antsy, he picked it up. Lance’s facial expressions whenever he hit particularly good spots were just so intoxicating. He wanted more, so he sped up again without any urging, absolutely slamming into Lance’s g-spot with almost frightening accuracy, if Lance’s babbled Spanglish and moans where anything to go by.  
  
Fuck, he was gonna come.  
  
Luckily, Lance came first with a yowl that Adam would later tease him for, calling him a cat, but in the moment, it just tipped him over his own edge, cock throbbing as hot, sticky fluid flooded Lance’s cunt. Adam rode the high, kissing Lance hard until the spots behind his eyes faded.  
  
Lance lay flopped out as if boneless and Adam chuckled a bit as he pulled out and lay next to him, watching his blissed out expression with amusement and adoration.  
  
“You’re so cute,” he whispered.  
  
Lance chuckled, rolling over onto Adam’s chest to snuggle him. “Mm, so are you. That was _amazing,_ babe. Thank you.”  
  
“Of course. Anytime.”  
  
“Mm, not during dinnertime. Too hungry.”  
  
Adam laughed brightly, and everything felt so right. If only Lotor had been able to be here, too. Oh well. There would always be next time.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the chapter with the torture and rape.

The news reached Lance a few days later.  
  
Curtis was another casualty in this war. Dead from a freak earthquake thanks to another scuffle between the demons and angels.  
  
Lance didn’t really know how he should have felt. Maybe he should have cried, or screamed, or cackled in glee. But for the most part, he just felt empty.  
  
“Do you want to talk about it?” Lotor asked, holding Lance in his lap.  
  
“Eh… kinda, but not really? Honestly, it’s just…” He sighed. “It’s like. I’m happy he can never hurt me again. But it’s weird, that he’s dead, I guess. I don’t _like_ being happy that someone’s dead? When that someone was so important to me, once? It’s dumb.”  
  
“Your feelings aren’t dumb, Lance,” Adam said softly, snuggling a bit deeper into Lotor’s side. “It’s okay to be confused about what to feel. What you _are_ feeling. To not be sure how to react. He hurt you, but you loved him. These things are… very hard to work through. But you will. And not alone.”  
  
Lance smiled, just a little. “Thanks, guys. I love you both so much.”  
  
Adam’s smile softened. “I love you too.”  
  
“I love you three,” Lotor said with a chuckle, followed by an _oof_ as Lance elbowed him gently.  
  
“Way to ruin the moment,” he chided with a giggle, proving that it wasn’t really ruined.  
  
Adam just rolled his eyes fondly. “You two are absolutely ridiculous.”  
  
“Aww, but we’re _your_ ridiculous boys,” Lance said, blowing a kiss at Adam.  
  
Adam rolled his eyes again and laughed quietly. “Yes. That is… really nice.”  
  
*  
  
Sendak hummed, looking over the new soul and his crimes. His case really wasn’t all that unusual, very open and shut. Curtis Andros belonged in Hell.  
  
Then the soul’s prattling pierced the dreary fog of boring desk work that had permeated his mind and his head snapped up.  
  
“That stupid bitch Lance, I don’t even know where he got a demonic friend, but it’s because of _him_ that I’m here, not because—”  
  
“Shut up,” Sendak growled, eyeing the soul. “Answer my questions and maybe I won’t hand you over to King Zarkon. What did this demonic friend of his look like?”  
  
Curtis scoffed, inasmuch as a disembodied soul could. “I dunno, some fatty with big round ram horns. And then when I left his stupid friend with the antelope horns, one of them broken, came after me and threatened me!”  
  
“This one with the antelope horns,” Sendak cut him off before he could rant further, “Did he wear glasses? Perhaps refer to himself as an adversary of humanity?”  
  
“...Yeah,” Curtis said, giving off the effect of narrowing his eyes at Sendak. “Why, he a dumb little friend of yours?”  
  
“Hardly. I want his job,” Sendak said bluntly, “Not exactly his job, but the job of his friend. You see… I find that you are in the perfect position for a little treachery.” Sendak smiled darkly. “The demons that are staying with Lance are the Four Horsemen. They’re doing quite an awful job.”  
  
“You want me to help you liberate them of their duties so you can take them on,” Curtis said, grinning just as darkly as he leaned in closer to Sendak. “What do I get out of it?”  
  
“You avoid an eternity of torture,” Sendak growled.  
  
“Well, I must get something. I can refuse your request for help, if you’re not going to plan anything. I’ll take torture. But you won’t give it to me, because as you said, I’m in a very unique position.”  
  
Sendak growled, glowered, and grunted. “Fine. We transform you into a demon, and you can do whatever you’d like with that human brat that those traitors are protecting. Lance. Our only point of interest with him is that he connects the Four Horsemen together. Once we steal their powers, they can’t help him. Your job is to go in, threaten Lance until they give up their jobs, and then once it’s done, you can have him for whatever you want. I and three others will be there to take over for the Horsemen.”  
  
“It’s a deal,” Curtis agreed instantly, “I need to make Lance pay.”  
  
Sendak smirked. “Wonderful. Then we shall begin the process. Haxus, take over my deskwork. I’ve got a little project I need to set into motion.”  
  
Haxus sighed, but nodded, moving the pile of paperwork for the incoming souls from Sendak’s desk to his. His lips twitched up a little at the groaning from some of the souls who now had to go to the back of a very long line and wait again. Ah, it was the small things, sometimes.  
  
*  
  
Lance sighed happily, braiding Lotor’s hair. There’d been a big battle that day, and the Horsemen plus Lotor were weary and resting up at Lance’s home, as usual. Lotor hadn’t meant to get caught up in it, but because he was out getting updates from the team when Allura and Gabriel and a few others had attacked, Lotor had been forced to fight to stay alive. All of them had been pretty much magically drained by some horrifying new weapon, and they’d only gotten away with Romelle’s subtle interference, knocking the weapon loose.  
  
It wasn’t that Lance was _happy_ that everyone was exhausted and hurt on various levels, but it was nice to have everyone home and relaxing. Keith, Hunk, and Shiro were playing Mario Kart together while Lance braided Lotor’s hair, and Adam was doing his absolute best to try and nap, even though half the people in the room were being disruptive.  
  
“Why don’t you go to our room to sleep?” Lance had asked, only to be met with Aam’s horrifyingly haunted look.  
  
“Nightmares. If I’m alone. I’m… scared, that if I’m not here, then someone will take you from me,” Adam whispered.  
  
Lance hadn’t really wanted to leave him alone after that, even though keeping Adam awake by being needy at him wouldn’t have helped, so he’d leaned into Adam’s side and just began braiding Lotor’s hair.  
  
It comforted him, to be with his lovers like this. Relaxing so deeply in each other’s company.  
  
_BANG!_ The door burst open and Lance toppled off the couch, looking to the door, and completely freezing up as Curtis, Curtis with curling demon horns and large black wings, eyes entirely black, smoke swirling around him, entered the house.  
  
“No,” he whispered, crawling backwards and pressing himself into the couch. “How?”  
  
Curtis laughed. “Friends in low places, just like you,” he said smugly. “Being a crossroads demon… None of your wards could protect against me. Not with where our house is built. This is _my_ territory now.”  
  
Shiro tried to stand up, but the exhaustion still clung to him like molasses, and he was unsteady on his feet. Hunk had been laying down instead of sitting, and the best he’d been able to do was rise up on all fours before falling back down in sheer exhaustion from the effort. Keith lunged for Curtis’ feet, to try and take him down, but then — then Sendak stepped into the house, followed by three other demons that Lance didn’t have names for, and they each took a hold of one of the exhausted Horsemen.  
  
Lotor’s eyes flashed as he stood in front of Lance, trying to draw strength. From where, he didn’t know.  
  
“What is the meaning of this treason?” he hissed.  
  
“Orders from Zarkon,” Sendak said with a toothy smile, “Seems he doesn’t like the way you’ve been doing things, whelp. We’re here to take over.”  
  
Curtis smoothly stepped forward and knocked Lotor to the floor. He didn’t get back up. Curtis squatted right in front of Lance and took him up the shirt collar.  
  
“You thought you could get away from me,” he whispered, grinning sadistically, “But here I am. Back and better than ever.”  
  
Lance’s breathing rate increased and distantly, he recognized that he was having a panic attack, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it. Limply, he clawed at Curtis’ hands, but he knew deep in his bones he wouldn’t get away.  
  
“You’re mine. Of course, you’re mine no matter what you say, but you see, if you come with me willingly, we _won’t_ kill your disgusting friends for their Horsemen powers. We’ll just force them to break their job contracts. Deal?” Curtis asked with a grin.  
  
Lance shivered, looking at his best friends, his boyfriends, scattered around the room, being strong-armed by enemy demons, and feeling quite overwhelmed. He had to protect them, the little bit that he could. Even if their Horsemen powers were taken, they’d live. They’d recover. If he didn’t give in, they’d be killed, and he’d be taken anyway.  
  
At least this way he might have a sliver of hope for rescue.  
  
“Lance, don’t,” Adam whispered, choking a the demon holding him gripped his throat.  
  
Lance swallowed.  
  
“Deal,” he said, the word weighing heavily on his tongue as the room filled with the protests of his friends and their sputters as they were summarily silenced.  
  
Curtis smirked, and then they vanished in a flash of darkness.

*

They reappeared in some kind of bedroom, and Lance felt like he’d just been splashed with a bucket of ice water as he suddenly realized Curtis’s intentions. _You’re mine,_ Curtis had said, but Lance hadn’t quite realized what he’d meant. Sure, he figured he’d play the loving husband, but… This part hadn’t occurred to him.  
  
Curtis wrapped a hand around Lance’s throat and he stood very still, breathing slowly. He had to get through this. He could do it.They’d be able to come for him eventually.  
  
“How long did you wait after you broke up with me to fuck them?” Curtis asked lowly, bending close to Lance’s face so that their noses brushed.  
  
“A couple of mon—” Lance choked as Curtis squeezed his his throat, cutting off his air.  
  
“Wrong answer,” Curtis snarled, “It should have been _never,_ bitch.”  
  
Lance just nodded, hoping that Curtis would let him go soon. “I’m sorry,” he forced out the whisper.  
  
“No you’re not,” Curtis scoffed, squeezing tighter for a moment before letting go. “Too bad if I kill you my fun is over.”  
  
Lance stayed still, heart racing. He couldn’t win against a demon Curtis, and Curtis was aware of it. There was nothing he could do but take it as compliantly as he could and pray for rescue.  
  
Huh. Maybe praying to Romelle could work. Maybe angels could be prayed to. She was his guardian angel, wasn’t she?  
  
He yelped when Curtis suddenly snapped his fingers and both of their clothes were gone. _Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck._ It was too real now, what was happening, and Lance backed up unsteadily.  
  
“You’re not getting away,” Curtis said, rolling his eyes. He grabbed Lance by the arms and threw him onto the bed. Another snap had the chains on the bed posts latching around Lance’s wrists and ankles, pulling them wide apart and immobilizing them.  
  
“If you cooperate with me, I’ll take the chains away,” Curtis said with a pleasant smile, “But for now…” He pulled a jagged knife from the side table. “I need to remind you of what you are, _bitch.”_  
  
Curtis knelt on Lance, digging one of his knees into Lance’s solar plexus as he pressed the tip of his knife into Lance’s chest. Slowly, he carved into Lance’s flesh, ever so precisely, ensuring the scars would last.  
  
Lance screamed in pain.  
  
“Music to my ears,” Curtis murmured at one point, halfway through the T, “I should have gotten into this _kink_ thing of yours a lot sooner. I never realized how… enticing you looked, covered in blood from my marks.”  
  
Lance desperately wanted to spit in Curtis’s face, but he wasn’t sure he’d get water any time soon. The screaming wasn’t helping any possible dehydration, but he really couldn’t help it. He’d never been subjected to anything like this before. Hell, he’d never even broken a leg or something before!  
  
He was sobbing the by the time Curtis finished slicing the word _bitch_ into his skin, and with Curtis’s knee right in his lung space, he couldn’t breathe that well, which the sobbing didn’t help at all.  
  
Curtis cleaned the knife and then Lance’s body methodically, even bandaging the wounds.  
  
“Can’t have you getting an infection and ruining all my fun,” Curtis explained with a sharp smile.  
  
Lance just nodded, closing his eyes. Then Curtis settled himself between Lance’s legs, and Lance realized that Curtis was hard. _I guess he does have a kink for bloodplay,_ was the last errant thought to pass through his mind.  
  
“Time for me to claim what’s mine back. I’m surprised they even fucked you, considering how disgusting you are. But alas. I’ll just have to erase your memory of them. You’ll have _nothing,”_ Curtis whispered harshly as he slipped in.  
  
Lance let out a choked sob and Curtis just laughed darkly.  
  
*  
  
Whenever Curtis wasn’t in the room he kept Lance in, Lance prayed. Prayed to God, prayed to Romelle. He wanted to be rescued so desperately. He was cooperating with Curtis, letting him have what he wanted without fighting, just trying to survive.  
  
He only ever got water and buttered toast, just enough to keep him alive, and he hated it. Curtis had always loved restricting Lance’s eating, but he’d never had such free reign until now. Lance had thought what he’d been through was bad, hah. This was so much worse.  
  
The days blurred together, and as much as he tried to count it out, he was never quite sure. He was typically passing out instead of sleeping between rounds of Curtis… _Raping him._ He shuddered at the thought, trying not to vomit, trying not to cry, trying not to waste the precious resources his body had. His chest was healing, slowly. At least he hadn’t needed stitches. Still. So much for finally achieving that summer bod where he didn’t have to wear a shirt.  
  
He snorted at himself. Geez. He was too good at trying to make light of situations like this.  
  
The door burst open and Lance flinched, sitting up and anxiously curling in on himself. A strange light was filling the room and he shut his eye against it until his eyelids were less searing red.  
  
Cautiously, he opened them slowly and startled at the sight of Romelle, six pairs of wings, flaming sword, blazing halo, and a fierce look on her face.  
  
“Lance! Come, we’re getting you out of here,” she commanded, and Lance stood on weak legs.  
  
Even though her tone was urgent, he took a second to grab his jacket, throw it on, and zip it up as he stumbled towards her. (Could you blame him? The only other thing he’d had on was his underwear!)  
  
Sensing a need, she grew an extra pair of arms and carried him bridal style in one pair, still wielding her sword with the other.  
  
“Come here often?” he joked weakly.  
  
Romelle rolled her eyes as they rushed out of the room on hushed wings. “It’s _Hell,_ Lance. No. I don’t.”  
  
“...Y’know, that explains why it was so _damned hot_ in that room.”  
  
“...Are you making _puns_ about being in _Hell?!”_  
  
“Yeah? Was it too subtle?”  
  
Romelle just huffed at him as they flew, up and up and up, until they burst through some scrambling demons who dressed up like guards and escaped, with Lance clinging to Romelle and screaming periodically.  
  
She kept flying until they were able to get to Lance’s house and landed, exhausted, on the porch, before she was able to stumble in, still holding Lance. Most of her angelic appearance had retreated. One pair of arms, one pair of wings, no more halo.  
  
“Lance!” Adam leapt up and took him from Romelle’s arms.  
  
Hunk rushed over and took Romelle into his arms, gently taking her and leading her to the couch.  
  
“Well, the good news is, I got promoted,” Romelle said weakly, grinning tiredly at Lance. “Avenging angel. No longer just a guardian angel.”  
  
Lance laughed quietly before it dissolved into coughing. “Yeah. That was badass. Thank you so much, Worm, I…”  
  
Romelle shook her head. “Just doing my job, Bear.”  
  
Hunk hovered over Romelle and started fussing at her about being too exhausted to do anything, and Lance snuggled into Adam’s arms.  
  
“How long was I gone?” he asked quietly as Adam walked them over to the armchair and sat down.  
  
“A week,” Adam said softly, “We were trying to figure out what to do that whole time. With Romelle’s help we kicked the others out and locked the place up tighter than Alcatraz.”  
  
Lance snorted. “Well, I’m okay. Mostly.” He shuddered, desperately not wanting to think about it.  
  
“Shh… I’m here. Lotor will be home soon, too.”  
  
“What happened while I was gone?”  
  
“......” Adam sighed. “Sendak, Haxus, Hepta, and Myzax took over the Horseman jobs. We were forced to sign them over. The apocalypse has changed, and even the angels have noticed an extreme difference in how it’s being handled. The war is shifting to Sendak’s side.”  
  
“Shit,” Lance breathed.  
  
“Yeah. We’ve been trying to help, but we’ve all been… too weak…”  
  
To Lance’s horror, Adam started crying. “I’ve been so worried about you, _ben yam._ I thought I’d never see you again, and I couldn’t do a _damned_ thing because I was so fucking _tired._ I couldn’t muster up any energy to try and save you. Lotor, Keith, Shiro, Hunk, we were all completely fucked. Romelle finally showed up once she could safely get away from her heavenly duties and she _lost it._ After, as she put it, ‘levelling up’, she healed us and then flew off with Lotor so he could open a portal to Hell for her. He’s taking care of some business there, played a distraction so Romelle could get in swiftly, and now I’m worried about him, too, and I still can’t do anything because I’m scared if I leave you alone, something bad will happen _again._ Not that I was any help the first time.”  
  
Lance swallowed, pulling Adam’s head gently down to his shoulder and cradling Adam’s head as he sobbed. All Lance could really do was sit there and hold him. His own bone-deep exhaustion was settling in, even as his worry for Lotor spiked his adrenaline. Adam needed him, so he could sit there and take it, hopefully not falling asleep in the process, and comfort Adam to the best of his ability as the tears stained his jacket.  
  
A thought occurred to him and before he even fully formed it, he began to hum a tune. He got all the way through the song twice before Adam’s sobs finally abated and Lance kissed his forehead.  
  
“Feeling better?” he asked quietly, rubbing the last of Adam’s tears away, “I bet you haven’t done that in a long time.”  
  
“Yes. And yes,” Adam said, sighing quietly. “Thank you, my love.” Inhaling deeply, exhaling slowly, Adam tilted his head curiously at Lance. “What was that song? It wasn’t a tune I recognized.”  
  
Rather than explaining, Lance hesitated for the barest of seconds before just singing.  
  
_“In the dark of the night… in the light of the day… when you’re raring to go… when you’re tired from the fight… when you’re losing your mind… let me give you a thought… I’m gonna be right by your side no matter what.”_  
  
He cleared his throat. “There’s more, but it’s kind of a duet, so.” He smiled sheepishly. “It’s one of the Steven Universe songs. One of the shows that’s on our to-watch list. But it’s like, one that’s really late in the series, so. But it’s one of my favorites.”  
  
Adam smiled, leaning his forehead to Lance’s. “We’ll watch it soon. Hopefully. Thank you. I needed that kind of sentiment. Though I wasn’t very good at staying by your side…”  
  
“ _...Idiota,_ maybe because you were ‘ _tired from the fight’,_ so tired that you literally couldn’t move for days on end?!” Lance huffed. “I love you, but please, your brain really has to have _no_ room for that self-deprecating nonsense. You were probably barely holding your body together as it was!”  
  
Adam opened his mouth, but no sound came out as he processed Lance’s words. “I… I really can’t argue with that.”  
  
Lance snickered. “Yeah, cuz I’m right.”  
  
Adam smiled softly, kissing Lance gently with a happy sigh. “I’m so glad you’re home. What did Curtis do to you?”  
  
Lance tensed. “Lots of things,” he said evasively.  
  
Adam simply nodded in understanding. “You only have to talk about it when you’re ready.”  
  
A swishing sound, and then Lotor rushed over to the chair. “I’m fine,” he said quickly, “I got out of there alive. For now.” He coughed. “Zarkon has ordered all demons to kill me.”  
  
Adam’s eyes flew wide open in shock. “But… But that would mean…”  
  
Lotor nodded grimly. “I’ll simply have to dodge their efforts.”  
  
“Wait, what does it mean?” Lance asked, head swivelling between the two of them in confusion.  
  
“I would cease to exist. Entirely.” Lotor shrugged. “They’ll never achieve it, of course, but it does make living a touch harder.”  
  
Lance had almost stopped breathing, but Lotor’s sheer arrogance pulled a hysterical giggle from him.  
  
“We’re so fucked up,” he whispered, pulling Lotor in for a kiss.  
  
Lotor nuzzled at him, then turned to kiss Adam, too. “I’m glad you’re home safe, Lance. I wasn’t sure Romelle had made it out with you.”  
  
“Yeah. I’m all here. I mean, I guess, except for like, natural skin shedding from scratching itches, some blood, maybe a few hairs, probably a couple of sneezes.” Lance snickered.  
  
“Blood?” Lotor’s brows rose.  
  
“Humans bleed,” Lance deadpanned, sidestepping the harsh topic, “I know it’s hard to believe, but it’s true.”  
  
Lotor snorted. “Alright.” He massaged Lance’s scalp lightly. “The war escalated quickly. I don’t know how we’ll be able to get the Horseman jobs back. If we even could… The… Angels… Are losing. Before, it was mostly a standstill, but the angels are actively losing now. This war is going to end horrifically if we can’t come up with something quickly. _Everything_ is at stake here.”  
  
Lance slumped. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.  
  
“It’s not your fault,” Lotor and Adam both said immediately.  
  
“If it weren’t for me getting tangled up with Curtis—”  
  
“It’s on Curtis for being a total _ben zonna,”_ Adam interrupted, “Not you. He’s the one who picked you to manipulate and abuse. Zarkon, Sendak, and their minions were looking for any excuse to remove Keith, Shiro, Hunk, and I from the equation too. We had a lot of opposition. It’s unfortunate that they’ve won this round, but we _will_ win the final fight, I’m sure of it.”  
  
“So who the hell is ‘we’ anyway? What’s our side here? Not angels, not demons, so who wins? If demons win, the Earth gets obliterated, if angels win, what, Earth gets transformed into Heaven or something?”  
  
“Oh, no, no matter what the Earth will get obliterated in the final fight. That’s what the apocalypse is for,” Lotor explained, “Our goal has always been to prevent it entirely. The only way to win is not to play the game.”  
  
“...You know that reference?”  
  
“I am more cultured than the average demon, yes.” Lotor smirked.  
  
Adam and Lance both laughed, leaning into each other.  
  
“So how do we get them to stop, then?” Lance asked in a whisper, “I… Didn’t realize things were that serious.”  
  
“They weren’t, before. The angels were confused over what the hell we were doing, when we were the Horsemen, so things never got as heated. We were hoping to prolong it enough to come up with something. We didn’t tell you because we didn’t want to worry you that much,” Adam said softly.  
  
“...I kinda wanna be mad that you didn’t tell me, but I get why,” Lance said with a sigh. “I got to have a bit of a happy life for a while.”  
  
“Yes,” Lotor said softy, “It was rather nice.” He pressed a small kiss to Lance’s lips and sighed. “I’m still sorry.”  
  
“Me too,” Adam murmured.  
  
“Don’t worry about it, guys. Thanks, though. So… Any ideas?”  
  
“I’ve got something,” Romelle said, “But I think we all need a good sleep and showers first.”  
  
Lance grimaced. “Yeah.” His stomach growled. “And dinner, too.”  
  
*  
  
Romelle’s plan was dangerous, crazy, and 95% likely to get them all killed.  
  
Lance clung to that 5% like a lifeline. This plan was all they had. They really didn’t have any other alternatives.  
  
He pursed his lips as they gathered together in their last moments before enacting their plan. He… Honestly, he was terrified out of his mind that it wouldn’t work. That they’d all get killed (and in all the cases except him, they’d be permanently gone. All his friends would disappear and he’d be left alone. Whether he’d go to Heaven or Hell, he wasn’t even sure).  
  
Lotor’s arms slipped around him from behind and he heaved a sigh, leaning back into Lotor’s chest.  
  
“Penny for your thoughts?” Lotor asked in a murmur, lips against Lance’s ear.  
  
“I’m scared,” he whispered back. “I want this to work. It _has_ to work. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost all of you…”  
  
Lotor tilted his head back gently and kissed him ever-so-softly. “We’re going to be fine. We’ll be able to do it. I’m scared, too, but I have to believe it’ll work. That we’ll make this happen. There is no other option except success.”  
  
Lance smiled softly. “Mhm. I believe you, babe. Thanks.”  
  
“It’s time,” Adam said quietly as he came up to the two of them. “I love you both. So much.” He leaned in and kissed Lance, then Lotor.  
  
“I love you both, too,” Lance said, voice raw with emotion.  
  
“And I also love you both,” Lotor murmured, nuzzling at Adam.  
  
“We’re gonna do this,” Lance said firmly, “You guys’ll do great. I dunno how much I can do, when I hardly have any human friends, but… I’ll do what I can. I promise.”  
  
“I believe in you,” Adam said sincerely, “Now… Let’s go. Time to save the universe.”  
  
*  
  
Walking onto a raging battlefield was somehow both more terrifying and yet more calm than Lance had really anticipated, thought that was probably because he had quite the entourage. They fought between the front lines, him, his demons, and his angels. He didn’t really know Allura or Coran, or Merla and Luka and Tavo, either, but at least he’d heard of the first two. How Romelle had convinced them to do this, Lance didn’t know, considering they were the ones that had hurt the original Horsemen so much that it got him kidnapped and the real monsters to take over the Apocalypse.  
  
Oh. Maybe it was a guilt trip.  
  
Lance shivered every time his little circle of protection jarred or shuddered as they forced their way through the fighting. Eventually, the front lines backed off as they realized the commotion that was happening.  
  
A line of angels and demons, all of whom were quietly recruited by Lance’s scrappy band, followed them into the fray, forcing the fighting to come to a grinding halt.  
  
“What’s the meaning of this?” Alfor shouted, swooping in from his position as a general in the sky. “Allura? Coran?”  
  
The two of them stayed silent for a moment, standing beside each other and drawing strength off each other as they stared Alfor down.  
  
“Father. This is wrong,” she said softly, “the Earth and all its beautiful people, animals, plants… everything… don’t deserve to be erased over our celestial fight.”  
  
Alfor blinked. “But this _is_ what’s right,” he insisted, “Why are you out here with the fighting? The prophecy--”  
  
“ _Damn_ the prophecy, Alfor,” Coran said loudly, taking a step forward. “It’s mere speculation and interpretation that went through us and humans. We’re all very much less than infallible. There’s only One who is truly infallible, and only They know what is meant to be. It’s not up to us to pretend we know everything.”  
  
“Excuse me?!”  
  
“No, excuse me,” Lance cut in, “Hi, Lance, human, nice to meet you, fuckass. I’d kinda like the Earth to stay as it is. You know. Un-exploded. We all live here, even if you celestial guys use some kind of, like, pocket-dimension tech to reside in different space by technicalities. You’re all still tied to Earth. And how much of Earth do you think you’d miss were it to leave?”  
  
Lance took a deep breath before plowing on. “Chicken nuggets. Flowers blooming in the spring. The leaves changing color in the fall. Warm, sunny days where everybody goes swimming and eats ice cream. Cold, dark days where everyone huddles inside by the fire and has smores. Video games, laughter, merriment, joy… None of which you can have if you don’t also have the sadness, crying, tragedies. No more of God’s beautiful animals, no more of the green Earth or the… the creativity, the happiness, the satisfaction of a job well done. I don’t want to just die here and now, even if it means seeing my Meemaw again. Especially if it means that we don’t have anymore Earth. Everything Earth _is_ makes life worth living! And if the afterlife is just a bunch of walnuts like you being all strict and shit over everything, then an afterlife isn’t really that appealing.  
  
“I don’t want to have an afterlife where some high and mighty angel thinks he can act in God’s stead without having a full understanding of the human experience. Without understanding what God’s motives _are._ You’re not going to push us around for some greater good you _think_ you get when you _don’t._ You literally can’t! And acting like you do is… Well, d’you think God would be happy with that?”  
  
Alfor’s mouth opened and closed, but no sound was coming out.  
  
“Earth is for everyone. And it needs to be saved. Not razed to the ground because you think your brothers and sisters are _all_ wrong.”  
  
Adam stepped up by Lance’s side. “Alfor. You know I’m still assigned heavenly duties by God Themself. Even though I’m supposedly on the wrong side of this war, because I made a few mistakes. What if all this is just a test of _ourselves?_ To prove we are worthy to be guarding Earth and the Kingdom of Heaven? And even the Gates of Hell? What if we are supposed to finally put an _end_ to this fighting for good by reconciling? Realizing that fundamentally, we’re not so different after all?”

Alfor finally shut his mouth, staring at them unblinking. “I… I do not know what to think,” he admitted, glancing at Allura and Coran.  
  
“Save the Earth with us, Father,” Allura begged, “That’s what’s supposed to happen. I’m sure of it.”  
  
Alfor gave his daughter a long, torn look. Breathing in, he ultimately made his decision. “No more bloodshed,” he bellowed in a celestial call, the sound ripping over the crowd.  
  
Angels and demons alike put down their weapons, unsure, yet hopeful for a brighter future. Except for, of course, those most monstrous on both sides.  
  
The Hijacking Horsemen roared in anger and charged, heedless of anything but their own desire for fighting and taking over the Earth. But it were no angels that stepped in to stop them.  
  
Shiro, Keith, Hunk, and Adam detached from their ragtag group and started to fight. It felt they were up against insurmountable odds, what with the powers they’d had previously being used against them unrelentingly. But within only a few ticks, Coran, Allura, Romelle, and Alfor himself joined in. With eight against four, demons _and_ angels fighting together, the Horsemen were ripped to shreds. Sendak, Hepta, Haxus, and Myzax were felled one by one, their bodies dusting. With them, their extra powers disappeared forever.  
  
For a moment, they could all breathe a sigh of relief.  
  
“....So, I know you guys told me you would disappear forever if killed like that,” Lance piped up from the sidelines, “But… I didn’t expect it to look like Thanos snapped.”  
  
Meanwhile, Lotor crossed blades with his father.  
  
“This is not what we want!” he snarled furiously as their swords clashed.  
  
“But it’s what’s commanded,” Zarkon bellowed.  
  
“How do you know?” Lotor hissed as he whirled to avoid a slash, “What you think is meant to be may not be!”  
  
“I care not for your philosophical debates,” Zarkon said with a sneer, deftly dodging Lotor’s next attack, “I only care for destroying the opposition.”  
  
“That will never happen,” Lotor whispered, whipping forward. Spotting an opening, he stabbed right through Zarkon’s heart. “Goodbye, Father. May Earth stand forever and deny you your satisfaction.”  
  
Zarkon made a wet gurgling noise before his body simply crumbled to dust. Lotor shuddered, and Adam came up to catch him.  
  
“I’m here, love. I’m here.” Adam held him close, his wings sprouting from his back and enveloping the two of them.  
  
His eyes closed, so he didn’t notice the change. The wings that had once been brilliantly white, filled with feathers, that had blackened and had the feathers burned away when he Fell, that had been that way for millennia, had begun to sprout feathers. Soft, grey feathers.  
  
Of course, that didn’t stop the people around him from having eyes and going to check their own wings.  
  
Lance ignored everyone else (minus a very, very brief moment where he stared at Romelle and Allura as they shared a celebratory “we won” makeout session, much to the chagrin of Alfor and Coran) and ran up to Adam and Lotor, crashing into them with a hug.  
  
“Holy shit. We did it. We actually diverted the apocalypse,” Lance whispered, laughing a bit. “Oh, man. Oh man. You guys. Adam. Lotor. I’m so sorry for what you just had to do, Lotor--”  
  
“Don’t be,” Lotor said thickly, “It had to be done. Only fitting it was me.”  
  
“Still… Anyway. Look at your wings. Guys, look at your wings. Look at _everyone’s_ wings,” Lance said with awe in his voice as he pulled away.  
  
Adam opened his eyes, blinking at Lance in confusion, until he startled at the sight of his own wings. He pulled away from Lotor, barely noticing Lotor’s shocked expression as he checked over his wings, nearly pulling the feathers out in his haste to preen.  
  
He couldn’t help but to fall to his knees with tears in his eyes and mutter a quick, thankful prayer. He’d do it properly once he was back home with his boys, but he couldn’t bear to just not acknowledge it right away. _His feathers were back._ It felt like… like he was closer to home than he’d ever been since he Fell, even with his heavenly assignments. It felt like… forgiveness, of a kind. A step towards it at the very least.  
  
Lotor fell to his knees next to Adam in the dirt and they clutched at each other, kissing desperately in their shared grief and relief.  
  
Lance looked around, feeling awkward and out of place. Watching demons rejoice, and angels wring their hands over their changes. But, he noted, that it left them all with hardly any distinguishing features from one another. And perhaps that was the point. They were all the same, at the core. No horns or tails or weird eyes. Unless they’d wanted to keep them, he realized slowly, noticing Shiro still bearing his deer antlers.  
  
He chuckled to himself a bit. _Probably because he’s goth trash and he loves his decorations too much._ It was a heartwarming thought. That they were all the same, but they still got to keep features they liked. Shiro had explained to him at one point how horn decorating was a big part of demonic culture. It’d just be rude to take it away. Lance looked over Adam, watching as his broken horn healed and grew to match the unbroken one, and, looking around, he saw Romelle suddenly sprout some gazelle-esque horns and squeal over them. Huh. Cool. Briefly, he wondered of any of the other angels would have wanted horns, but it wasn’t really any of his business.  
  
After a few more seconds of holding each other, Adam and Lotor stood and took Lance into a hug, wrapping their wings around the three of them together.  
  
“Thank you,” Adam said, squeezing Lance tightly.  
  
“If it weren’t for you, Lance… I doubt we could have gotten this ending,” Lotor whispered, burying his face in Lance’s hair.  
  
Lance giggled a bit. “Aw, guys. I love you so much, I… I’m so, so glad I bought that stupid house. Demonic activity aside.” He laughed wetly, and, unable to wipe his eyes, he sheepishly rubbed his face into Adam’s shoulder. “Lotor, you make it sound like I was the main character of a dating game and got the best ending after unlocking all of the achievements.”  
  
Lotor snorted, laughing into Lance’s hair, and Adam chuckled quietly, rolling his eyes fondly.  
  
“Never change,” Adam whispered, and drew Lance into a toe-tingling kiss. Lotor kissed at Lance’s neck, and Lance couldn’t help just wonder, briefly, if the Earth had been destroyed and he was in Heaven after all.


End file.
